PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Youth will have nine days rather than five this year to have the fields to themselves to hunt pheasants in South Dakota.

The 2020 youth season will start September 26 — one weekend earlier than in the past — and run through October 4, the state Game, Fish and Parks Commission decided Thursday.

Commissioners voted 8-0 for the change (page 70). It came from a petition that Savanah Hendricks, a 13-year-old from rural Vivian, submitted at the March meeting.

She said the youth season hadn’t been examined since 2008.

“It is crucial to instill a passion for hunting and outdoors in our youth at a very young age. Any youth who are either academically or athletically inclined are unable to utilize the Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of the current ‘Youth Pheasant Hunt Season,'” Hendricks wrote in her petition.

Commissioner Mary Ann Boyd of Yankton thanked the teen for bringing the idea and for the support the commission received from her peers.