PIERRE -- A plan to require legislative approval before the state Game, Fish and Parks Commission could buy land for public hunting and other outdoor recreation was rejected Friday by a South Dakota committee.

The State Affairs Committee killed the measure on a unanimous vote after lawmakers said it would interfere with private landowners' rights to sell to buyers of their choice.

Rep. David Lust, R-Rapid City, said the bill would have forced landowners to go through the currently required Game, Fish and Parks Commission hearings and then wait for additional public debate in the Legislature.

"As a landowner rights advocate, I think that is asking too much of landowners in this state," Lust said.

The bill would have required state agencies to get legislative approval for any land purchase exceeding 80 acres. It would not have applied to the Transportation Department, which frequently acquires land for highway projects.

The bill's main sponsor, Rep. Betty Olson, R-Prairie City, a frequent critic of the Game, Fish and Parks Commission, said that commission was her "primary target -- surprise, surprise."

The commission members are appointed and mostly support the Game, Fish and Parks Department, Olson said. Members of the Legislature are elected and represent the public, she said.

"We have the people's interest at heart," Olson said.

Critics of the department have said its land purchases prevent private landowners from buying some land.

Game, Fish and Parks Secretary Jeff Vonk said Olson's bill would have stopped most land purchases by the department because landowners would not wait up to a year or more for a sale to be approved in the Legislature.

The Game, Fish and Parks Commission already notifies the public before it buys land, and it takes public comment in meetings before purchase are made, Vonk said.

Nearly all land purchases are made to add to existing outdoors areas, Vonk said. The department owns not only parks and recreation areas, but also game production areas and other land available for public hunting and other recreation.

The department last year spent more than $2.5 million to buy 15 tracts of land totaling more than 2,000 acres, Vonk said. Land owned or leased by the department provides public hunting for those who cannot afford to pay to hunt, he said.

Vonk said the department buys an average of about 2,000 acres a year. The department's Wildlife Division does not use general state tax funds, but instead uses hunting and fishing license fees and money from a federal excise tax on outdoor equipment, he said.