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I I I I I wildlife resources contained in pre-construction planning reports has been highly variable. One rather consistent finding born out by avail- able post-construction wildlife impacts assessments, to date, has been the tendency of pre-construction predictions to overestimate the adverse effects of project construction on subsequent deer abundance. The fo~- lowing is a project-by-project discussion of the pre-construction deer I I I I I I I I I I I I I I impact predictions compared to actual post-construction conditions, as described by local, knowledgeable wildlife biologists. Lake Sharpe (Big Bend Dam). This project permanently inundated 55,800 . ac (22,582 ha) and acquired in fee an additional 23,973 ac (9,702 ha). The pertinent section of the Fish and Wildlife Service's pre-construc- tion planning report dealing with probable big game impacts, is presen- ted below (Burwell, 1962), viz: Most of the cover on which the deer population of the area is dependent will be destroyed by flooding. Since the uplands surrounding the reservoir contain little natural cover of the type preferred by deer, and practically no planted cover, on- ly remnant populations of big game are expected to remain in the vicinity. Loss of deer hunting is expected to be complete. Compilation of South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks deer har- vest and license sales data for. the three counties adjacent to the east side of Lake Sharpe for both pre-construction and post-construction per- iods, documented that the average annual deer kill for 5 years immediate- ly prior to impoundment was 55 animals and the average success rate was 0.60 deer killed per license sold. Sixty-three deer were killed in 1964. which was the first year after impoundment, and the success rate was 0.79 deer killed per license sold. The average figures for the 10 year period of post-fmpoundment record were 172 deer harvested per year and 0.67 deer 44