Ecology lessons along old Route 77

Don’t rush to Sioux Falls on Interstate 29. Take a scenic route to visit your properties — the public land where you can walk on an open prairie of native grasses and flowers, and see wetlands and wildlife. I’m referring to the land purchased and managed for you by the Government’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the non-profit Nature Conservancy (TNC).
Let’s go “driving for pleasure.” Brookings folks know where the “S” curve is on South Main (Old Rt 77).

From there it is 19 miles to Coleman’s Corner on Rt 34, which is the end of our ecology field trip. But first, cross the Big Sioux River.

Big Sioux River
Note the sluggish, turbid, meandering Big Sioux as you cross the bridge. It is 200 miles as a crow flies from the river’s headwaters in Summit to the confluence with the Missouri River, but the meanders of the Big Sioux make the river twice as long. The road ahead climbs the bluff that overlooks the river basin – look eastward across the 2-mile-wide river valley and imagine a huge river of glacial melt water 14,000 years ago.

You can see why the Sioux called the river “Thick Wooded River.” Trees grew on the open prairie only along rivers and lakes where wild fires could not reach.

Waterfowl Production Areas (WPAs)
You will ride through three large WPAs: at 10 miles (Meyers WPA), 17 miles (Kleinsasser WPA) and 18 miles (Petsch WPA). Hunters paid for these lands by purchasing Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamps, known as Duck Stamps. The story of the duck stamp is a conservation success story with deep South Dakota roots, but that is for another time. The first WPA purchased with Duck Stamp dollars was in Day County in 1959. South Dakota has approximately 1,000 WPAs (about 150,000 acres) and they are all yours.

These WPAs are purchased and managed by the FWS to provide nesting habitat for waterfowl, but they conserve habitat for many, many more types of
wildlife. George Vandell, former Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) administrator and current South Dakota Wildlife Federation member tells everyone “If you want to do something for wildlife, purchase a duck stamp!” Buy a stamp for $25 at the Post Office.

WPAs are open to hunting as well as other wildlife activities like birdwatching and photography. Each WPA along Rt 77 tells a different conservation story. The Meyer WPA is a wetland choked with cattails, not much good for waterfowl, but great pheasant winter cover.

The 1-mile-long, 230-acre Kleinsasser WPA has 4 parking lots, so stop and take a walk. There are two ecology lessons here. The first is the extensive uplands around a large prairie pothole. When the WPA program started, the focus was on conserving wetlands, but ducks don’t nest on water, so later WPAs included more upland habitats for nesting.

Secondly, you might see cows grazing the WPA. Grazing and fire formed the prairie vegetation historically, so the FWS works with local livestock owners to graze the WPAs on a 3-to-5-year rotation.
The next WPA is the Petsch WPA, named for the family cooperating with the FWS. Rt 77 goes right through the middle of a large prairie pothole. There are three lessons here.

The first tells of the evolution of conservation thinking. You see almost no upland habitat around the wetland in contrast to the Kleinsasser WPA, indicating that this WPA was established early in the conservation program. The FWS doesn’t even manage this property. However, the wetland is important habitat for wading birds, which can usually be seen right beside the road. Former SDSU wildlife student Kyle Kelsey and current FWS employee says “This has been a great year for wading birds like plovers, sandpipers, ibis and others.

This summer, Petsch is drying up, thus giving us a third ecology lesson.

You’ll see a dry basin - mud from shore to shore. Game, Fish and Parks waterfowl biologist and Brookings Wildlife Federation member Rocco Murano had an article in the last GFP magazine, Conservation Digest, titled “Drought, What is it Good For?” (Summer, 2026 p 17-18). He writes that the wet/dry dynamic is the key to wetland productivity, and is good for ducks and wetlands. He explains that in a dry wetland, oxygen mobilizes nutrients locked in the bottom sediment. The nutrients
provide a significant flush of production after the wetland is reflooded, and vegetation encroaching into the wetland, when flooded, will make excellent habitat for aquatic critters from bugs to ducks.

Sioux Prairie Preserve
Just before you get to Rt 34, a large wooden sign on the east of the highway marks the Sioux Prairie Preserve. This 200- acre rolling prairie belongs to The Nature Conservancy, a global conservation organization that preserves remnants of native prairies, rivers and forests that they call “our natural heritage.” About 250,000 acres in South Dakota have been preserved. They welcome trespassing for wildlife viewing and photography, but no hunting.

The Sioux Prairie made news recently in South Dakota Magazine (May/June 2026 p 66-72). Nature writer Pete Carrels highlighted several local areas he calls “heritage landscapes,” which help us imagine the “sea of grass” that the settlers found. You might see evidence of a fire, because the Nature Conservancy uses fire instead of grazing to rejuvenate the vegetation by removing thatch and controlling woody plants.

The Sioux Prairie is an excellent place to view prairie wildflowers and grasses. Everyone knows Big Blue Stem grass, the one with the turkey-foot shaped seed head. Settlers said that Big Blue reached up to their saddles. The wildflowers change with the seasons. In July, find prairie clover, sunflowers, and lead plant with its purple spike of flowers. Lead plants and other legumes provide nitrogen to the soil. In the fall, the flower presentation changes as the prairie shows golden rod, asters, and iron weed, which are late season nectar sources for pollinators. Download a flower guide titled Common Flowering Plants (Forbs) in South Dakota from the SDSU Extension site.

Like the WPAs, the TNC land is habitat for many kinds of wildlife — from bobolinks to butterflies.

At the top of the hill, you can see Interstate 29 and the busy life it represents. Quite a contrast to the quiet prairie setting where you stand.