Audubon News
Newsletter of Prairie Hills Audubon Society of Western South Dakota
Inc. August-Sept 2023
Prairie Hills Audubon Society
Annual Meeting – Hybrid Format
Thursday eve, August 31st, 2023
This meeting will start at 6 pm MT
It will be a hybrid meeting both by Zoom & face-to-face
at the Piedmont American Legion Post 311 – 101 Pine St,
Piedmont, SD 57769. The Post is located at the corner of
Sturgis Rd and Pine St. on the SE side of Piedmont.
1. Erik Molvar, Executive Director of Western
Watersheds Project will start the meeting with speech
on the greater sage grouse & our ongoing litigation to
protect greater sage grouse on BLM lands (2016-pre-
sent). The BLM plans to release NEPA documents on
revisions to their greater sage grouse management in late
summer or fall.
2. After Erik finishes, we move to the business meet-
ing. Members in good standing, can vote in person, by
Zoom or by proxy. We will hear treasurer’s report &
nominating committee report. Current board will be nom-
inated to serve again and others can be nominated from
floor. Members will select a slate of candidates & the
number of Board positions for the next year, from an
allowed range of 4 to 12 board members. An election
committee will be appointed to supervise election, which
is done subsequently by mail-in ballots.
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ZOOM DETAILS
The links can also be found on our web and Facebook
pages. We use same codes repeatedly for monthly meets.
=========================================
Topic: PHAS annual meeting w/ greater sage grouse lec-
ture, Time: August 31st, 6 pm MT
Zoom Meeting Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85433920233?p
wd=QmxYUDMvMGRrNW9yRmVON3V
PU0dRZz09
Meeting ID: 854 3392 0233
Passcode: 534620
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,85433920233#,,,,*534620# US
+16699006833,,85433920233#,,,,*534620# US
(San Jose)
—
Dial by your location (as far as we know all numbers
work in western SD)
• +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
• +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
• +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
• +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
• +1 360 209 5623 US, • +1 719 359 4580 US
• +1 564 217 2000 US, • +1 646 931 3860 US
If you dial in by phone you need the following codes:
Meeting ID: 854 3392 0233
Passcode: 534620
Find your local number (International):
https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbb9dO0PBV
Amendments to PHAS By-laws.
At the PHAS Board meeting on August 15th, 2023, the PHAS
board of directors made amendments to the by-laws.
We amended Article I Membership - Section 5, Article II
Meetings - Section 2 & Section 4, Article III Board of Directors
- Section 1 and added a Section 12. These changes were to
allow the annual meeting to be in person or by video-conferenc-
ing, teleconferencing and/or hybrid means, to clarify conditions
for proxy voting, use of e-mail & text communications for busi-
ness and to allow the range of, directors to be 4-12, instead of
5-12 (the Board size is selected at the annual meeting).
Members wanting copies of the By-laws and Articles of
Incorporation contact Nancy Hilding whose contact info is on
the front flap of newsletter (nhilding@rapidnet.com).
Mountain Lions under threat by Commissions
Upcoming this fall are SD GFP Commission meetings
(Sept 7th & 8th, and October 5th & 6th in Deadwood & hybrid
meet) and a Wyoming Game & Fish Commission meeting (Sept
12 & 13 in Gillette & hybrid) at which rule changes about
mountain lion hunting will be discussed & some likely made.
In SD they may chose to allow more hound hunting of lions in
the Black Hills. In Wyoming they may increase harvest limits
by 50% in some areas near the border with Utah & allow chas-
ing of cougars with dogs, without the killing the lions treed.
We have alerts on these matters on our web page & we
may do a car pool to Gillette. PHAS has a calendar with alerts
& also alert pages on our web site. Most of our information
about campaigns is on web or sent by e-mail. The web site was
broken in late June & the calendar in July, but they are fixed
 Prairie Hills Audubon Society is run by volunteers and we are always recruiting new volunteers & we are especially recruiting new board
members. In late June 2023 our web site was temporarily broken and in July the calendar was not working. But both are fixed now.

Prairie Hills Audubon Society (PHAS) is a Chapter of the National Audubon Society. Our territory is much of West River SD. Nancy Hilding -
President, nhilding@rapidnet.com, 605-787-6466; Jim Petersen - Vice President, nfearndesire@gmail.com, Helen McGinnis - Treasurer, hissyhe-
len38@gmail.com, Doris Respects Nothing - Secretary, drn.6501@gmail.com, Jedediah Beadle - Field-trip chair & Board Member, jedediah-
beadle@gmail.com; Tonia Stands -Board Member, preservehumanity@gmail.com, PHAS web site : http://phas-wsd.org/, PHAS Facebook
page: https://www.facebook.com/phas.wsd/ Blog: https://phas-wsd.blogspot.com/

Prairie Hills Audubon Society ING

M EET , 2023,
P.O. Box 788 AL ST
Black Hawk, SD 57718 S A NNU UST 31 SAGE
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Fall Field Trip on Forestry Basics We have information on this project on our Calendar
PHAS, Sierra Club and the Norbeck Society may once again Alerts page for dates of 9/7/23-9/8/23. Forest Service
jointly sponsor a fall field trip on Forestry Basics with retired sign up sheet:
BHNF Forester Dave Mertz. Persons interested in such should https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdnoVz5U
contact Nancy Hilding (her contact info is on flap). If we have tYswPmGZ_YNCHmCHyrxf0y–
enough interest, we will schedule a weekend date in the fall. HIzcHCdwxmjhnbMaw/viewform Or contact Nancy
Hilding for more info. We record our Zoom meetings &
Beaver Dam Analog construction project post recording links to our web site. We have recorded
Friday September 8th - Saturday September 9th meetings on beavers & BDA & also various web site
Prairie Hills Audubon Society has a campaign to alerts beavers - who provide great habitat for birds & bats
recover beaver in the Black Hills & other parts of western
SD & to reform SDGFP management of beaver.
Building beaver dam analogs (BDA) is part of the
effort to recover beaver &/or mimic creation of their habi-
tat. We would love for our members to help this worthy
project & learn BDA building skills.
Anne Dunckel of Black Hills National Forest
(Northern District) is inviting the public to come out &
help her build a beaver dam analogs on Silver Creek in
the Northern Hills. Silver Creek is located just east of
Rochford Road a little north of the town of Rochford.
It is Friday & Saturday from 8:30 am - 4:30
pm. Volunteers will be weaving willows around posts,
packing them with sod mats, and impounding a little bit
of water. So be ready to get a little bit muddy and wet.