South Dakota state law: native plants and natural landscaping

South Dakota has no codified statewide ordinance encouraging or restricting native plant landscaping on residential lots. The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department and DANR Forestry Division publish voluntary guidance on native prairie restoration and pollinator plantings, but neither has rulemaking authority over residential yard design. The principal state-law constraint on a 'no-mow' or prairie-style yard is SDCL Chapter 38-22 (Weed and Pest Control), which requires every landowner to control state-listed noxious weeds — so a deliberately unmown lot must still be kept free of Canada thistle, leafy spurge, musk thistle, and the other listed species (see 'Weed ordinances' for the full list). Municipal tall-grass and weed ordinances enacted under SDCL Chapter 9-32 and SDCL 9-29-1 can impose lawn-height limits that effectively constrain prairie-style yards in urban settings; however, many SD cities allow native or pollinator gardens by exception, by a managed-natural-landscape registration, or simply by absence of complaint enforcement. Residential homeowners associations remain free to set stricter aesthetic covenants under their CC&Rs.

There is no state penalty for a native or natural yard as such. Penalties attach if the yard violates SDCL 38-22-19 noxious-weed control (Class 2 misdemeanor under 38-22-25 plus cost recovery via tax assessment) or violates the local municipal tall-grass or property-maintenance ordinance (typical civil fine plus city-mow-at-owner-expense).