1     
HUNTING AMENDMENTS

2     
2019 GENERAL SESSION

3     
STATE OF UTAH

4     
Chief Sponsor: David P. Hinkins

5     
House Sponsor: Carl R. Albrecht

6     

7     LONG TITLE
8     General Description:
9          This bill modifies provisions related to regulating hunting.
10     Highlighted Provisions:
11          This bill:
12          ▸     addresses the Department of Agriculture and Food's regulation of aerial hunting,
13     including granting rulemaking authority; and
14          ▸     makes technical changes.
15     Money Appropriated in this Bill:
16          None
17     Other Special Clauses:
18          None
19     Utah Code Sections Affected:
20     AMENDS:
21          4-23-106, as renumbered and amended by Laws of Utah 2017, Chapter 345
22     

23     Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
24          Section 1. Section 4-23-106 is amended to read:
25          4-23-106. Department to issue licenses and permits -- Department to issue
26     aircraft use permits -- Aerial hunting.
27          (1) The department is responsible for the issuance of permits and licenses for the
28     purposes of the federal Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956.
29          (2) [(a)] A [state agency or] private person may not use any aircraft for the prevention
30     of damage without first obtaining a use permit from the department.
31          [(b) A state agency that contemplates the use of aircraft for the protection of
32     agricultural crops, livestock, poultry, or wildlife shall file an application with the department
33     for an aircraft use permit to enable the agency to issue licenses to personnel within the agency
34     charged with the responsibility to protect such resources.]
35          [(c) A person who desires to use privately owned aircraft for the protection of land,
36     water, crops, wildlife, or livestock may not engage in any such protective activity without first
37     obtaining an aircraft permit from the department.]
38          [(d) Agencies and private persons that obtain aircraft use permits shall file such reports
39     with the department as it deems necessary in the administration of its licensing authority.]
40          (3) The department may issue an annual permit for aerial hunting to a private person
41     for the protection of land, water, wildlife, livestock, domesticated animals, human life, or
42     crops, if the person shows that the person or the person's designated pilot, along with the
43     aircraft to be used in the aerial hunting, are licensed and qualified in accordance with the
44     requirements of the department set by rule.
45          (4) The department may predicate the issuance or retention of a permit for aerial
46     hunting upon the permittee's full and prompt disclosure of information as the department may
47     request for submission pursuant to rules made by the department.
48          (5) The department shall collect an annual fee, set in accordance with Section
49     63J-1-504, from a person who has an aircraft for which a permit is issued or renewed under this
50     section.
51          (6) Aerial hunting activity under a permit issued by the department is restricted to:
52          (a) (i) private lands that are owned or managed by the permittee;
53          (ii) state grazing allotments where the permittee is permitted by the state or the State
54     Institutional Trust Lands Administration to graze livestock; or
55          (iii) federal grazing allotments where the permittee is permitted by the United States
56     Bureau of Land Management or United States Forest Service to graze livestock; and
57          (b) only during the time period:
58          (i) for purposes of Subsection (6)(a)(ii) or (iii), that under an active permit the
59     permittee may graze or run livestock on the land; and
60          (ii) for which the land owner has provided written permission for the aerial hunting.
61          (7) The department shall make rules, in accordance with Title 63G, Chapter 3, Utah
62     Administrative Rulemaking Act, that are necessary to carry out the purpose of this section.
63          (8) The issuance of an aerial hunting permit or license under this section does not
64     authorize the holder to use aircraft to hunt, pursue, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect
65     protected wildlife, as defined in Section 23-13-2, unless also authorized by the Division of
66     Wildlife Resources under Section 23-20-12.