Opinion ID: 901273
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Parks Slough

Text: [¶ 11.] Until the late 1990s, the area known as Parks Slough was a series of small, unconnected hay sloughs. A hay slough or hay marsh is an area that normally floods with shallow water for a period of time during the spring. This temporary flooding allows for the growth of vegetation used for hay to feed cattle. In dry years, these hay sloughs can be the only sources of hay for cattle. The largest of the sloughs in the Parks Slough area was normally about sixty-six acres and the smallest was about fifteen acres. At the time of the trial, the area was covered by approximately 245 surface acres of water, with a maximum depth of thirty feet. [¶ 12.] In 1923, Day County constructed Highway 25 around the Parks Slough area. [6] Since the 1930s, the Parks Slough area has been farmed, hayed, and grazed. In the 1950s and 1970s, the land was so dry that dugouts were constructed to water livestock. Currently, these dugouts are several feet under water. During the 1980s, much of the area qualified for enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program. At that time, enrollment required that the land be used for crops for at least three of the previous five years between 1980 and 1985. The Parks Slough area met these criteria. [¶ 13.] This area has supported wildlife. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, ducks were hunted there. In the early 1940s, early 1960s, and the mid-1970s, the Parks Slough area was used for trapping. In the mid-1990s, Ordean Parks introduced perch into this water body. [¶ 14.] Recently, Parks Slough has been a very productive walleye-rearing pond, producing a significant population of fingerlings. The Parks family has been cooperative with the State in its use of the water body to raise fish. Although closure of the water body was necessary to manage fisheries, a dispute arose between the Parks family, who expected that the public would be kept from using the water body, and the GF&P concerning whether Parks Slough was public or private. [¶ 15.] When the area flooded and the water abutted adjacent rights of way, members of the public began launching boats off the roads and onto the waters of Parks Slough. In addition, people would access the water via the road during the winter for ice fishing purposes. When the landowners sought assistance from the State, neither the GF&P nor the Day County authorities would prosecute the alleged trespassers believing that the water body was public. [¶ 16.] In 1999, the State needed walleye eggs for their spawning operations. Ordean and Orion Parks and Otto Deuschle agreed with the State that the water body should be administratively closed under SDCL 41-2-18. The agreement provided that the landowners would allow the State to use the area to collect walleye spawn in return for closing Parks Slough from the public.