Blaze orange is sweeping across the South Dakota this weekend for the 100th pheasant hunting season, opening at 12:00 PM on Saturday. (October 20)

If you're traveling through the Sioux Falls Airport, allow extra time due to the influx of hunters arriving for the season.  The Sioux Falls Convention and Visitor's Bureau and other organizations have booths set up to welcome those arriving to bag a bird Thursday and Friday. (October 18 and 19)

The hunters are a have a positive economic impact on the state according to Wanda Goodman with the South Dakota Department of Tourism. Hotels, restaurants, gas stations, hunting supply and hardware stores all reap the benefits of hunting season and it's the warm hospitality that South Dakotans extend to hunters that keep them coming back year after year.

The South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks has information on where to hunt, how to get a license and other requirements for season.

Goodman says South Dakota has the best pheasant hunting in the country, and they promote it through advertising with Pheasants Forever, partnering with medium-sized cities in their advertising campaigns, and an opportunities for grant programs for smaller towns called Rooster Rush, where those tiny communities without advertising dollars can receive funds to promote their area for hunting.

An estimated 1.2 million Pheasants reflect in an uptick in the population this year, with eastern South Dakota showing the biggest increase.

 

 

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