Public Act 093-0837
 		





SB2156 Enrolled
LRB093 15050 RAS 40632 b






    AN ACT concerning wildlife. 

 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, 
represented in the General Assembly: 


 
    Section 1. Short title.  This Act may be cited as the 
Illinois Hunting
Heritage Protection Act.


 
    Section 5. Findings.  The General Assembly finds the 
following:


        (1) Recreational hunting is an important and 
    traditional recreational
activity in which 14,000,000 
    Americans 16 years of age and older participate.


        (2) Hunters have been and continue to be among the 
    foremost supporters of
sound wildlife management and 
    conservation practices in the United States.


        (3) Persons who hunt and organizations related to 
    hunting provide direct
assistance to wildlife managers and 
    enforcement officers of federal, state, and
local 
    governments.


        (4) Purchases of hunting licenses, permits, and stamps 
    and payment of
excise taxes on
goods used by hunters have 
    generated billions of dollars for wildlife
conservation, 
    research, and management.


        (5) Recreational hunting is an essential component of 
    effective wildlife
management, in that it is an important 
    tool for reducing conflicts between
people and wildlife and 
    provides incentives for the conservation of wildlife,

    habitats, and ecosystems on which wildlife depend.


        (6) Recreational hunting is an environmentally 
    acceptable activity that
occurs and can be provided for on 
    State public lands without adverse effects on
other uses of 
    that land.



 
    Section 10. Definitions.  For the purposes of this Act:


    "Department" means the Department of Natural Resources.


    "Department-managed lands" means those lands that the 
Department owns or
those lands of which the Department holds 
management authority.


    "Director" means the Director of Natural Resources.


    "Hunting" means the lawful pursuit, trapping, shooting, 
capture, collection,
or killing of wildlife or the attempt to 
pursue, trap, shoot, capture, collect,
or kill wildlife.



 
    Section 15. Recreational hunting.    
    (a) Subject to valid existing rights, Department-managed 
lands shall be open
to
access and use for recreational hunting 
except as limited by the Department for
reasons of public 
safety, fish or wildlife management, or homeland security or
as 
otherwise limited by law.


    (b) The Department shall exercise its authority, 
consistent with subsection
(a), in a manner to support, 
promote, and enhance recreational hunting
opportunities, to 
the extent authorized by State law.
The Department is not 
required to give preference to hunting over other uses
of 
Department-managed lands or over land or water management 
priorities
established by Department regulations or State law.


    (c) Department land management decisions and actions may 
not, to the
greatest practical extent, result in any net loss 
of land acreage available for
hunting opportunities on 
Department-managed lands that exists on the effective
date of 
this Act.


    (d) By October 1 of each year, the Director shall submit to 
the General
Assembly
a written report describing:


        (1) the acreage administered by the Department that has 
    been closed during
the
previous year to recreational 
    hunting and the reasons for the closures; and


        (2) the acreage administered by the Department that, in 
    order to comply
with subsection (c), was opened to

    recreational
hunting to compensate for those acreage 
    closed under paragraph (1).