A group of riled-up ranchers, who were hoping the Legislature would let them sue the state over prairie dogs, went home disappointed Wednesday. Ranchers like Charles Kruse of Interior and Gary Williams of Wall said they have suffered property damage, lost income and extra expenses by prairie dog incursions on their property - incursions they say the state is legally bound to control. But when they filed a lawsuit to collect damages from the state for failing to do so, the South Dakota Supreme Court threw it out on the grounds of "sovereign immunity," the protection a state has from being sued without its consent. Having failed in the courts, the ranchers joined with Rep. Lance Russell, R-Hot Springs, to solve their problem in the Legislature. House Bill 1168 would have waived the state's sovereign immunity for cases where the state has failed to control a nuisance species. "The only way we can ... in the future, make sure that the state government performs its duties that we've given them as a Legislature is to provide for these public nuisance actions on the part of individuals that are harmed," Russell said...
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