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SB2156 Engrossed |
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LRB093 15050 RAS 40632 b |
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| "Department" means the Department of Natural Resources.
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| "Department-managed lands" means those lands that the |
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| Department owns or
those lands of which the Department holds |
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| management authority.
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| "Director" means the Director of Natural Resources.
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| "Hunting" means the lawful pursuit, trapping, shooting, |
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| capture, collection,
or killing of wildlife or the attempt to |
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| pursue, trap, shoot, capture, collect,
or kill wildlife.
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| Section 15. Recreational hunting. |
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| (a) Subject to valid existing rights, Department-managed |
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| lands shall be open
to
access and use for recreational hunting |
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| except as limited by the Department for
reasons of public |
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| safety, fish or wildlife management, or homeland security or
as |
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| otherwise limited by law.
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| (b) The Department shall exercise its authority, |
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| consistent with subsection
(a), in a manner to support, |
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| promote, and enhance recreational hunting
opportunities, to |
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| the extent authorized by State law.
The Department is not |
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| required to give preference to hunting over other uses
of |
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| Department-managed lands or over land or water management |
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| priorities
established by Department regulations or State law.
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| (c) Department land management decisions and actions may |
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| not, to the
greatest practical extent, result in any net loss |
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| of land acreage available for
hunting opportunities on |
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| Department-managed lands that exists on the effective
date of |
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| this Act.
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| (d) By October 1 of each year, the Director shall submit to |
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| the General
Assembly
a written report describing:
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| (1) the acreage administered by the Department that has |
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| been closed during
the
previous year to recreational |
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| hunting and the reasons for the closures; and
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| (2) the acreage administered by the Department that, in |
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| order to comply
with subsection (c), was opened to
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| recreational
hunting to compensate for those acreage |
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| closed under paragraph (1).
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