FORT PIERRE, S.D.(KCCR)- It won’t be very large, but the first West River industrial hemp farm has been approved by the Fort Pierre City Council.  In what will amount to a test plot in the minimum required half-acre, Jess Wright says he wants to use the land to educate and research how it grows.

Wright’s land is near where Fort Pierre is looking at residential expansion.  He says no one has talked to him about his land and residential development.

Fort Pierre Public Works Director Rick Hahn says the State Department of Ag and Natural Resources leaves placement up to local governments.

The move by the Fort Pierre City Council will also make Wright’s plot one of the, if not the first industrial hemp farms approved inside a municipal boundary.