South Dakota has evidently had enough of the actions of one U.S. Fish and Wildlife federal agent, Bob Prieksat. They say Prieksat used bullying tactics against hunters and landowners. The state gave USFWS 60 days to either reassign Prieksat or fire him and USFWS did nothing.
Now South Dakota has said they will terminate law enforcement agreements they have had with USFWS in 30 days if nothing is done. It appears USFWS is not going to do anything.
Governor’s Chief of Staff Rob Skjonsberg says, “I think what they are telling us is that this issue is something we shouldn’t be concerned with and if that’s their response to us I think it’s incumbant upon us to stand up for ourselves and say this kind of behavior is not acceptable and this kind of behavior is not something we want reflected on our Game, Fish and Parks Department.”
So, what does this mean? It means that state officials can’t enforce certain federal laws and vice versa. What that really means is unclear but I think should this termination of agreements end, situations will arise that will require delicate handling, however USFWS is planning to conduct business as usual.
Mowad (Gary Mowad, Prieksat’s supervisor) says, “My agents will continue to do work as they have always done work, the only change that I see coming down the pike if it does occur is we would have to cancel some covert investigations we’ve got going.”
Communications with Prieksat and his office will end and the state says that any negative effects to wildlife will be USFWS fault.
Tom Remington
