Sen. Tim Johnson backs wilderness designation in Buffalo Gap National Grassland

The South Dakota Wild Grassland Coalition is praising Sen. Tim Johnson’s decision to introduce a bill designating 40,000 to 50,000 acres of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland east of Rapid City as wilderness. Johnson announced last week that his bill would follow recommendations of the U.S. Forest Service to designate land in the Indian Creek, Red Shirt and Chalk Hills areas of the national grassland as wilderness. Johnson said his bill would keep open the 6-mile-long Indian Creek Road by excluding it from the wilderness boundaries, as recommended by the forest service. Johnson and the other two members of the state’s congressional delegation, Republican Sen. John Thune and Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, have held off from supporting wilderness designation for the areas, citing opposition from some local groups. But local support for wilderness designation has been growing, according to South Dakota Wild Grassland Coalition manager Cheryl Warren of Custer...read more