Audubon News
Newsletter of Prairie Hills Audubon Society of Western South Dakota Inc.
April-June 2022
UPCOMING MEETINGS
Thursday, April 28th
PHAS Monthly Meeting
6:30 pm MT - Zoom Meeting
Update on Mining Threats to the Black Hills
Lilias Jarding, Ph.D., Executive Director, Black Hills
Clean Water Alliance.
There has been a lot of new activity around potential large-
scale mining in the Black Hills. There have been three new
projects just in April! This presentation will bring people
up to date on what is going on, including providing
BHCWA organizational updates and sharing a new map of
mining activity.
Friday, May 20th
Endangered Species Day Celebration
May 20th, 2022, by Zoom at 6:00 pm MT
We will have several speakers and topics, but all are not
yet confirmed.
Melissa Smith, Govt. Relations, Great Lakes Wildlife Al-
liance Executive Director, Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf &
Wildlife - will speak about - Wolves,
Most wolves in the USA were delisted by the Trump ad-
ministration in November 2020. But due to a February2022
court decision, they are currently re-listed under the Endan-
gered Species Act in much of the USA (but not in the north-
ern rockies). Link to discussion of change:
https://www.humanesociety.org/news/breaking-federal-
judge-restores-protections-wolves
Melissa will give history of listing/delisting actions, review
wolf recovery needs & also discuss wolf ecology & lives of
wolves. She may have an assistant speaker.
Bradley Phillips - Wildlife Biologist, Black Hills National
Forest - Brad will speak about northern long eared bat.
The bat is at risk due to a disease - whitenose syndrome. It
has been listed as threatened, but the USFWS proposed in
March 23rd, 2022 Federal Register to list it as endangered.
We have the bat in SD, but especially in the Black Hills.
Brad may be joined by another speaker.
Other speakers on other topics have been asked, but are not
yet confirmed. Other groups will co-sponsor.
Links/codes to join PHAS Zoom Meetings.
We reuse these codes all the time & we record meetings.
LINK:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85433920233?pwd=QmxYU
DMvMGRrNW9yRmVON3VPU0dRZz09
Meeting ID: 854 3392 0233
Passcode: 534620
One tap mobile
+12532158782,,85433920233#,,,,*534620# US (Tacoma)
+13462487799,,85433920233#,,,,*534620# US (Houston)
Dial by your location (all work in western SD - you need
to use ID & passcode for phone access)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 854 3392 0233
Passcode: 534620
Find your local number (international) :
https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbb9dO0PBV
Mountain Lion Meeting - Mid May (date not selected)
We will have a working meeting to discuss mountain lion
management in SD, Wyoming, Nebraska & we will invite
staff of various mountain lion organizations to the Zoom
meeting. At working meetings folks discuss issues without
a formal presentation. Folks interested in attending this
PHAS Zoom meeting should contact Nancy Hilding 605-
787-6466 or nhilding@rapidnet.com. Working meetings
notice is sent by e-mail to interested folks. We have a list
serve to discuss predator issues.
Photo by B. Tuten
Wyoming is doing their triennial review/rewrite of their
Mt Lion hunting regulations and also review of wolf
hunting regulations. Public comments due June 3rd, the
Commission meeting July 18th-20th & public meetings to
be held in mid May in various locations around Wyo.. We
object to the current Wyo. Black Hills lion season as too
aggressive.
This link has the info for proposed rule changes for
Chapter 42- Wyomings mountain lion rules.
https://wgfd.wyo.gov/Get-Involved/Public-Meetings
This link also has the schedule for future public meetings
meetings, commenting directions & you can hyperlink to
proposed rules for Chapter 42 is the mountain lion hunting
& 47 is wolf regulation.
Nebraska revises their hunting rules in early summer. SD
will revise in 2023 - link to the record of kills in the SD
Black Hills in 2021-2022: https://gfp.sd.gov/mountain-
lion/.
Prairie Hills Audubon Society is run by volunteers, we need new volunteers to help run organization, but we are especially looking for
new Board Members. For information contact Nancy or Jim whose contact info. is listed on the label fold. Visit our web site /Face-
book page to stay updated on our & other organization’s functions. Please send us your e-mail address so we can send you PHAS
announcements.

UPCOMING FIELD TRIPS
Saturday May 7th, 2022
Our annual field trip to Lacreek National Wildlife
Refuge.
We will meet at the Refuge Headquarter building
at 10 am MT. We will meet at 6:50-7 am for car pooling
from the eastside Family Thrift/Family Fare parking lot in
Rapid City. Covid19 safety requirements/rules are up to
each car driver, so folks should bring masks. Jedediah (our
field trip chair) will be going over earlier on Saturday or
camping at the Refuge the night before. Sierra Club may
be a co-sponsor of field trip.
June 4th, 2022.
Jedediah Beadle will lead a field trip on June 4th.
Destination is undecided but meet at Outdoor Campus
West, Rapid City, SD, at 7:30 am. MT.
Other field trips may be planned that are not announced in
this newsletter, but would be on our list serve, Facebook,
Web site, Blog & sent to e-mail lists.
We have a list serve to discuss Prairie Hills Audubon So-
ciety (PHAS) field trips, sighting of birds by list serve par-
ticipants, hands-on projects to & citizen science to benefit
birds & issues associated with bird conservation in our re-
gion - phas-birds@googlegroups.com. Anyone can join.
Prairie Hills Audubon Society may organize a joint birding
effort to do a Climate Watch square sometime between
May 15th- June 15th. For details on Climate Watch:
https://www.audubon.org/conservation/climate-watch
For trip/birding info: contact Nancy 605-787-6466 or
Jedediah (207) 310-4665 jedediahbeadle@gmail.com;
——
You can sign up for NAS’s Dakota Audubon’s newletter
https://act.audubon.org/a/audubon-dakota-email-signup

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; Helen McGinnis - Treasurer, hissyhelen38@gmail.com, Doris Respects Nothing - Secretary,
drn.6501@gmail.com, Jedediah Beadle - Field-trip chair, jedediahbeadle@gmail.com; Jim Petersen - Vice President, nfearndesire@gmail.com,
PHAS web site : http://phas-wsd.org/, PHAS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/phas.wsd/ Blog: https://phas-wsd.blogspot.com/

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Prairie Hills Audubon Society (PHAS) Upcoming Meetings and Field trips - see inside
Thursday, April 28th Mid May
PHAS monthly meeting - Thursday, April 28th Working/discussion meeting on cougars
Update on mining threats to Black Hills Field trips
Friday, May 20th Saturday May 7th, Field trip to Lacreek
Endangered Species Day Celebration, National Wildlife Refuge
Topics include but are not limited to wolves & Saturday, June 4th, Field Trip.
northern long eared bats May 15-June 15th, is NAS’s spring sea-
son for Climate Watch

Climate Watch is sponsored by the National Audubon Society
(NAS) & takes place during two distinct seasons—winter (Janu-
ary 15-February 15) & summer (May 15-June 15).
Climate Watch focuses on areas of predicted change for 12
species across the continent. Volunteers select a grid of 10 km x
10 km to bird in. Volunteers bird in their square at 12 spots, fol-
lowing protocols, on one morning & send birding information to
the National Audubon Society (NAS).
Climate Watch focuses on these target species: Eastern
Bluebird, Mountain Bluebird, Western Bluebird, White-breasted
Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown-headed Nuthatch,
Pygmy Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, Lesser Goldfinch, Painted
Bunting, Eastern Towhee, and Spotted Towhee.
Link to the Climate-watch program on the NAS web page:
https://www.audubon.org/conservation/climate-watch
Climate watch instructions for participants:
https://www.audubon.org/news/participant-resources-cli-
mate-watch