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• The annual celebration at the Rapid City school will offer attendees the chance to talk live with a School of Mines scientist a mile below the Earth's surface at the Sanford laboratory in Lead.
• Cabot-Ann Christofferson, a chemistry faculty member serving as deputy director of the Majorana Project at Sanford lab, will talk about the experiment aiming to create the purest copper in the world. The experiment is searching for evidence of neutrinoless double-beta decay, and its detection could help measure the mass of the neutrino.
• Graduate students will be available to answer questions about their underground research endeavors.
• The events from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. are free and open to the public.
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South Dakota moves to curb goose population rise
• South Dakota more than doubles hunting limit to curb goose population explosion
By NORA HERTEL
Associated Press
• South Dakota moved Tuesday to curb a goose population explosion by more than doubling the number of birds hunters can kill per day.
• South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission members set hunting quotas for most geese seasons as well as the antelope season. Hunting licenses are adjusted by state officials to help control wildlife populations.
• Commissioners gave initial approval to a plan allowing hunters 50 light geese a day, up from 20. According to the U.S. and Canadian governments, the ideal population of these geese is about 1 million in North America, while there are currently about 15 million to 25 million.
• The light geese category includes snow geese, blue geese and the smaller Ross' geese. The large numbers of snow geese are causing problems when they migrate north. They strip vegetation and alter the soil chemistry, making it difficult for plants to replenish, said Rocco Murano, senior waterfowl biologist for the department.
• Murano said the federal officials have been watching these geese since the late 1990s, coordinating efforts to reduce their numbers.
• Commissioner H. Paul Dennert asked department officials if the 50 geese limit might lead to waste and whether there are other methods of population control.
• "This is the first step. It may not have a real big impact on the population," said Tony Leif, director of the Division of Wildlife in the department.
• He said if the state makes this effort, other population control mechanisms may (Continued on page 18)
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