This year’s winner of the Central Mountains and Plains Section’s award embodies conservation values in action
Jim Scull received the Central Mountains and Plains Section’s 2025 Citizen Conservation Award.
The award presented by The Wildlife Society’s Central Mountains and Plains Section recognizes nonwildlife professionals who have made contributions to wildlife conservation.
“He demonstrates a lifetime of commitment to wildlife, habitat conservation and education through volunteer service and philanthropy,” said Dennie Mann, president of the South Dakota Chapter of The Wildlife Society, who nominated Scull for the award after he won the South Dakota Chapter’s 2024 Citizen Conservation Award. The Section considered him among nominees from North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.
“I’m deeply honored,” Scull said. “I see [conservation] as a way of life.”
South Dakota Governor Larry Rhonden presented Scull with the award at the banquet for South Dakota Youth Hunting Adventures, a nonprofit founded by Scull whose mission is to foster a lifelong appreciation for the outdoors and a conservationist mindset in young people who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to get outside through mentored hunting and outdoor recreational experiences.
For the last 18 years, Youth Hunting Adventures has introduced around 60-80 young people each year to ethical, safe hunting practices with the support of vetted mentors. “I’m really proud of that program,” Scull said.
Part of Scull’s strategy to engage youth hunters is improving the state’s offerings for recreational shooters, including the in-progress Pete Lien & Sons Shooting Sports Complex outside of Rapid City, which will open this October.
In total, Scull and his companies have donated $900,000 to the project. Mann said that Scull was “instrumental” in acquiring the land for the project—he was the one who initiated the outreach and community involvement from the beginning—and in determining the layout for the project. “It’s really important to recognize individuals outside the agencies that are doing important work,” Mann said.
Scull, who owns and operates Scull Construction, has used his business to support the state’s conservation initiatives at various levels. Scull Construction built both the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Outdoor Campus West in Rapid City and the Custer State Park Visitors Center, which provides outdoor outreach and education.
He has also taken wildlife conservation into his own hands, owning and operating several ranch units in western South Dakota in collaboration with wildlife managers to follow best management practices for conserving and enhancing wildlife habitat. Around 25,000 acres of his ranches are held in conservation easements with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which will protect these areas from development in perpetuity.
Scull, who is now 75, prioritizes conservation now more than ever. “I do all this so my grandchildren can have these wild places and wild things,” he said.
