South Dakota state park usage skyrockets during pandemic

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of South Dakotans headed into the outdoors as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the state, causing state park visitor numbers to bounce back after last year’s rough weather.

The boost in visitors is a welcome sight for Scott Simpson, parks division director at the Game, Fish and Parks Department. But he’s taking things one week at a time as the pandemic continues and isn’t making predictions for how this summer will play out in South Dakota’s state parks, recreation areas and campgrounds.

There were 111,000 more visits to South Dakota state parks and recreation areas in April than normal, but cancellations of campsite reservations have been rolling in. As GFP waits to see what happens with visitor fee revenue, park improvement projects are in limbo and fewer seasonal workers, interns and volunteers may be hired for the parks this summer.

“We don’t know what the rest of the summer is going to look like, no more than anybody else knows what the rest of the summer’s going to look like,” Simpson told the Argus Leader.

Many state park facilities have been closed for the last two months while staff works remotely due to the pandemic, but those recently began reopening, and park staff began enforcing entrance fees on May 18. GFP is working to provide the safest environment for both employees and visitors at the parks, which includes visitors respecting others’ space while in the parks.

“We’re open for folks to come out and recreate,” Simpson said.

A half-million visits

Social distancing during the pandemic, combined with no enforcement of entrance fees and nice weather, boosted state park visits to 476,000 in April, compared to 365,000 visits during a normal April, according to Simpson. The month came after a few months of mild winter weather, bringing the total to 1.1 million state park visits between January and April this year, according to the GFP data based on traffic counters in the parks.

Last year’s constant barrage of rain caused a low number of park visits at slightly more than 300,000 for April, according to Simpson.

“The weather didn’t cooperate with us. It never stopped raining. We had flooding issues. We had park closures. It was anything but normal last year so this is great, get some stable weather, and folks are anxious to get outside,” Simpson said.

People are heeding the call to stay local for recreation, Simpon said. State parks around South Dakota’s population centers have especially seen an increase in visitors so far this year.

Visits to state parks and recreation areas around Sioux Falls have doubled in the first four months of this year compared to last year. Good Earth State Park topped 18,000 visits, Big Sioux Recreation Area had more than 11,000 visits, Palisades State Park had nearly 29,000 visits and Newton Hills State Parks had more than 30,000 visits, according to GFP.

In addition to visitors using the trails, park staff has seen a lot of vehicles simply driving through the parks, possibly as a way to get out of the house and see some scenery, Simpson said.

South Dakotans have also hit the water to fish in large numbers due to the pandemic and mild weather. Sales of one-day resident fishing licenses more than doubled to 1,400 in the first four months of the year compared to the same time last year. Nearly 33,000 annual resident fishing licenses were also sold through April, which is 15,000 more than were sold during the same time last year, according to GFP.

Park staff was already expecting campsite reservations to increase this year because flooded campgrounds have been repaired and reopened for this year’s summer season. Campground reservations in the first four months of the year were up by 85% compared to the same time last year, according to GFP. But campground reservations in the first four months is typically only 3% of the entire year’s reservations.

While some people used the campgrounds as a way to get out of the house and some canceled their reservations due to the pandemic, it’s hard to predict how many people who would normally be making a camping reservation aren’t doing so at all, Simpson said.

Uncertain revenue

The state park system is largely funded with user fees, which increased on Jan. 1 after GFP was faced last year with $10 million in flood damage, a revenue loss of $1.9 million due to low visitor numbers and a $52 million backlog of capital improvement projects.

Simpson said the park use numbers are a good start to the year, but they’re also seeing a higher-than-normal amount of camping reservation cancellations.

For now, GFP is being “very cautious” about spending its park system dollars. The department typically brings on 600 seasonal workers, interns and volunteers for summer. They’re trying to get by with what they can and will determine if they can hire more as the department sees the revenue, he said. Visitor safety also plays a role in how many summer workers they hire.

“We don’t know what July and August could potentially bring us. Those numbers look steady right now, but until those folks actually show up, we’ve got to be pretty careful,” he said.

Overall, revenue from park fees was up by 16% for January through April compared to last year. The number of people buying daily park passes doubled, and sales of annual park passes has increased by 18%, according to GFP.

Daily use of Custer State Park is up, which is likely local residents visiting the park, but sales of the Custer seven-day pass declined by 84% due to the pandemic, Simpson said.

“We’re not seeing that interstate travel,” Simpson said.

Planning for a pandemic summer

Parks officials’ main concern in early March was whether they’d be facing another spring of flooding in the state parks, the pandemic’s impact not even a glimmer on the horizon as they discussed their hopes for a good spring of park use with the GFP Commission in the first week of March.

Two months later, the focus at the GFP Commission meeting was a summer season of uncertainty in the parks.

Reopening park facilities and GFP offices involves pandemic planning no different than any other business reopening, Simpson said. The department has plans for Plexiglas shields and more hand sanitizer, a mask requirement for GFP staff interacting with the public at entrances, and signs about social distancing and limiting the number of people in a building.

Simpson has overseen the state park system as director for about a year. His tenure began with a year of flooding that damaged and closed state parks and campgrounds, and his second year started with a pandemic.

“We’ve been able to continue to provide opportunities and that’s been great,” he said, “but it certainly hasn’t been normal.”