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Committee advances bill letting adjoining landowners burn state land with written consent
Summary
The House Ag & Natural Resources Committee voted to send House Bill 1001g to the floor with a do-pass recommendation after proponent testimony that the measure restores prescribed-burning partnerships along the Missouri River and includes written-consent, liability, training, and an emergency clause.
House Bill 1001 as amended would allow private landowners who own property adjacent to certain state-owned tracts along the Missouri River to carry out prescribed burns on state land with written consent from the applicable department secretary or commissioner.
Deputy Secretary Christy Turman of the Department of Public Safety told the committee the change responds to an operational problem revealed in 2024, when a memorandum of understanding between Game, Fish and Parks and the Mid Missouri River Prescribed Burn Association was found inconsistent with state law and revoked, halting coordinated burns. Turman said the bill ‘‘carves out an exemption’’ to the existing statutory language that limits prescribed burning on state land to the secretary or the secretary’s designee, and requires written consent, a burn plan, safety resources and that the private landowner assume liability for the burn.
The bill’s language requires a written request that describes the state and private lands to be burned, timing, and an explicit statement that the purpose is woody-species control and grassland management. It references existing criminal and negligence provisions the landowner must follow, and Section 2 is an emergency clause intended to let landowners burn as soon as the governor signs the bill.
Kevin Robling, secretary of Game, Fish and Parks, said his department supports the measure and described prescribed fire as a ‘‘team effort’’ for habitat management. Multiple landowners and association leaders testified about the scope of eastern red cedar encroachment—the so-called ‘‘Green Glacier’’—and described multi-year planning, training and site-preparation steps. Sean Kelly, a South Dakota State University extension range specialist testifying in his individual capacity, outlined a three-part training pathway and multi-visit planning process used by the Mid Missouri River Prescribed Burn Association.
Committee members emphasized the bill’s safeguards: written consent from the responsible official, demonstration of burn plans and that liability shifts to the landowner conducting the burn. Representative Whitman moved and the committee recorded a do-pass recommendation; the roll call recorded 13 yays. Because the bill contains an emergency clause, the chair said it cannot be placed on the consent calendar and will be ‘‘pitched’’ on the House floor.
The bill now goes to the House for further consideration. If enacted with the emergency clause, the change would take effect immediately upon the governor’s signature.
