PIERRE — The state Game, Fish and Parks Commission has put the brakes on a plan to buy more private land around Bitter Lake in Day County for public use.

The Department of Game, Fish and Parks wants to pay $155,000 for 160 acres of farm ground.

Much of the parcel is enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program as grassland. Much of it also is flooded.

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Several commission members are questioning the wisdom of spending nearly $1,000 per acre for land that is under water, even though that was the appraised price.

They think the land can be obtained for less – if it is to be bought at all.

The commissioners decided to delay a decision on the purchase rather than take action at their meeting Wednesday.

Several commissioners said directly or strongly indicated they would have voted against the purchase if a decision had to be made. Other commissioners’ comments suggested the purchase likely would have been rejected on a majority vote.

“Right now it’s 99 percent under water,” commissioner Tim Kessler, of Aberdeen said. “Basically it’s a slough area. Do you think anybody else would pay $1,000 an acre for a slough?”

“This is being priced as dry land and it’s not dry land,” commissioner Jim McMahon, of Sioux Falls, said. “I just think we’re paying too much.”

The commissioners also want to know more about the long-range plan which GFP has for Bitter Lake.

The department has a second deal in the works to purchase 320 acres for the appraised price of $130,000.

GFP already owns approximately 3,350 acres of game-production areas at Bitter Lake which normally are open to public hunting.

But much of that land is flooded, too, right now because of high water in the lake.

Last year, the department also leased about 1,500 acres of private land which was used as walk-in area for public hunting at the southwest end of the lake.

The department is attempting to assemble a complex of state-owned hunting ground and shoreline at Bitter Lake similar to what was done at Lake Thompson.

GFP is using what their chief land-acquisition man, Paul Coughlin, described as “an open offer” if landowners want to sell their property at Bitter Lake.

Located south of Webster and Waubay, the lake began as one of the many farmland basins in northeastern South Dakota which began filling with water during high-precipitation years in the 1990s.

The GFP fishery staff began stocking Bitter Lake with walleye and perch in 1997. It’s gradually become a popular place for anglers for fishing year round.