Pine trees along rocky slopes in Custer State Park

South Dakota

Forest Action Plan

Managing South Dakota’s Forests for the Future

South Dakota’s forest action plan provides a comprehensive summary of the five forest types that occur in the state and establishes priority landscapes for targeting management resources. The conifer forests in the West, the upland hardwoods in the East, bottomland hardwoods along streams and rivers, agro-forest windbreaks on the plains, and community forests are examined in terms of extent, condition, values, threats, ownership, needs, problems, and opportunities.

South Dakota’s Forest Action Plan provides direction for addressing the issues and threats facing these forests detailing strategies, existing resources, needs, partners, and monitoring.



Best Management Practices

South Dakota’s best management practices (BMPs) program is non-regulatory. The agency responsible for BMPs policy development is the South Dakota Department of Agriculture’s Division of Resource Conservation and Forestry.

Click here to view the most recent BMPs recommendations on the state forestry agency website.

Click the following links to view available BMP monitoring data and implementation rates from NASF’s 2015 BMP survey and NASF’s 2019 BMP survey.

South Dakota Forestry Publications

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