Today, South Dakota's governor is a committed Earth hater and the legislature is dominated by Republicans who ignore the effects of the Anthropocene so lobbyists like the American Farm Bureau Federation are lining up again to stuff their pockets with cash. The reasoning is hardly mysterious: it's all about the money hunting and subsidized grazing bring to the South Dakota Republican Party depleting watersheds and smothering habitat under single-party rule. South Dakota's experiment introducing an exotic species has just not been able to keep up breeding a bird unable to adapt to the state's brutal weather and climate science-denying legislature.
And, after massive failures of state agencies like South Dakota Game, Fish and Plunder invasive species like zebra and quagga mussels are taking over waterbodies as diving ducks like the Canvasback, Redhead, Bufflehead, Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye and snow geese are being eliminated.
The loss of wetlands is particularly concerning for waterfowl populations, especially in the Prairie Pothole Region, often referred to as North America’s “duck factory.” This region, which spans much of northeastern South Dakota, is one of the most important breeding grounds for ducks. The small, shallow, seasonal wetlands are critical nesting habitats teaming with the bugs ducklings consume. Yet, these same wetlands are among the most vulnerable to drainage for agricultural purposes. And pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers can kill wetland bugs. [‘Wild places are worth fighting for’: Concern grows for receding South Dakota wetlands]It's not just the Northern Plains at risk to Republicans the Ogallala or High Plains Aquifer is being depleted six and a half times faster than its recharge rate and nearly all the groundwater sampled from it is contaminated with uranium and nitrates from industrial agriculture.
The good news? Drought could bankrupt the entire region and one hundred percent of South Dakota's land area is desiccating.
Spearditch resident and Republican former legislator, Kay Jorgenson is standing up to a governor who wants to gut public broadcasting in South Dakota while Minnesota Public Radio covers Indigenous love for the land.
Learn more at Progressive Farmer.
Scientists still do not know how many wetlands lost protection in last year’s crippling of the Clean Water Act by #SCOTUS. A study in @ScienceMagazine said the range of possible protection loss is between a fifth of nontidal wetlands to nearly all of them. https://t.co/b6yd9rkGpb
— Union of Concerned Scientists (@UCSUSA) October 26, 2024
In a recent episode of "This American Land" from @PBS, John Devney, Chief Policy Officer of Delta Waterfowl, discusses the importance of preserving shallow wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region for waterfowl populations.https://t.co/nPt84Ij2OX
— Delta Waterfowl (@DeltaWaterfowl) October 17, 2024
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