This commentary was written by Luke Hagen, editor of the Mitchell Daily Republic for South Dakota Searchlight, an online news organization.

PIERRE — Last fall, a Mitchell student encouraged our newspaper to research the number of dead deer across eastern South Dakota.

It was wonderful to get a news tip during a classroom visit to the Mitchell High School contemporary communications course, not only because story ideas help tell us what our readers are interested in but also because it showed a young person interested in local topics and news.

Within a week or so, I got another anecdote about a significantly high number of dead deer in the region. This time, the information came from a local South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department employee, who was chatting casually about the upcoming hunting season.

During a visit to the Capitol last week, I thought of those two interactions during a meeting with South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, who recently took office after the departure of Kristi Noem for her U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security position.

Our newspaper never told the deer story last fall because of roadblocks with state government openness.

It was a timely topic being talked about by our readers and more. Likely thousands of deer found dead all over South Dakota due to epizootic hemorrhagic disease or blue tongue virus.

On Nov. 20, the Mitchell Republic reached out to GFP’s communication staff asking for an interview with a state big game biologist. Not too much to ask, right?

The next day, GFP’s spokesman responded via email by asking for specific questions.

“I’d like to have a general conversation about EHD with a big game biologist,” I wrote back, giving a specific deadline.

As a reporter, it’s important to be able to talk to an expert in a topic when possible rather than allowing a communications person to piece together an answer they want crafted a specific way.

The public gets better information and can learn something new when hearing from an expert.

Six days after my initial request for an interview, I contacted GFP Secretary Kevin Robling.

“It is quite something that I put in an interview request on a Wednesday afternoon, give plenty of deadline length and cannot get a simple interview about something folks around the state are talking about,” I wrote in frustration. “There really needs to be an improvement with communications within GFP and the media.”

Robling responded, and soon I got a response from GFP’s communication department with statements, stats and information. I never spoke with the big game biologist.

Why is all this important?

Because Feb. 6 was News Media Day at the Capitol. And the ability, or inability, to speak with experts at the state level was a topic brought to Gov. Rhoden.

The governor’s team invited the South Dakota NewsMedia Association board of directors to meet with him. Since taking office, Gov. Rhoden has said publicly he wants to be open and accessible and to “reset” the governor’s office working relationship with the state’s press.

The board used the meeting to stress frustrations SDNA members have experienced the past several years in trying to interview state government officials in multiple departments, not only GFP.

We told the governor that regardless of how routine or mundane the information reporters are seeking may be, state officials have a firm reluctance to comment locally and that all questions must be “run up the chain” to Pierre, resulting in delayed responses or no responses whatsoever.

We were clear about the difficulties this poses for local reporters and editors trying to be factual and up-to-date in their reporting involving state government officials.

Rhoden indicated that this should not be the standard operating procedure for the state, while also acknowledging there are times when requests for information do need to be passed up the command chain in various state agencies. Improvement is expected moving forward, the governor and his staff say.

Five other board members, I and SDNA Executive Director David Bordewyk who attended the meeting, were all pleased with the conversation with Gov. Rhoden and his communications staff last week. Maybe cautiously optimistic is the best description of our feelings, and time will tell whether improvements are made.

When Gov. Dennis Daugaard held office, he was readily accessible and open. Most notably, he made a couple annual visits to most of the newspaper offices throughout the state to take any questions and chat about statewide topics of importance.

It was then a reporter could call a state employee and get an actual response from the expert, rather than someone on the other line afraid for his or her job if they were to say more than a peep to a news reporter.

It’s nice to see steps by Rhoden to get us in that space again with state officials. Oftentimes it just takes good communication to fight through a problem, and the door was opened last week.

Finally, perhaps some real communication again.