093_SB1527eng

 
SB1527 Engrossed                     LRB093 02110 BDD 08300 b

 1        AN ACT concerning wildlife.

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

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

 6        Section  5.  Findings.  The  General  Assembly  finds the
 7    following:
 8             (1)  Recreational  hunting  is  an   important   and
 9        traditional  recreational  activity  in  which 14,000,000
10        Americans 16 years of age and older participate.
11             (2) Hunters have been and continue to be  among  the
12        foremost  supporters  of  sound  wildlife  management and
13        conservation practices in the United States.
14             (3)  Persons who hunt and organizations  related  to
15        hunting  provide  direct  assistance to wildlife managers
16        and enforcement officers of  federal,  state,  and  local
17        governments.
18             (4)  Purchases  of  hunting  licenses,  permits, and
19        stamps and payment of  excise  taxes  on  goods  used  by
20        hunters  have  generated billions of dollars for wildlife
21        conservation, research, and management.
22             (5)  Recreational hunting is an essential  component
23        of  effective  wildlife  management,  in  that  it  is an
24        important tool for reducing conflicts between people  and
25        wildlife  and provides incentives for the conservation of
26        wildlife, habitats,  and  ecosystems  on  which  wildlife
27        depend.
28             (6)  Recreational   hunting  is  an  environmentally
29        acceptable activity that occurs and can be  provided  for
30        on  State  public  lands without adverse effects on other
31        uses of that land.

 
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 1        Section 10.  Definitions. For the purposes of this Act:
 2        "Department" means the Department of Natural Resources.
 3        "Department-managed lands" means  those  lands  that  the
 4    Department  owns or those lands of which the Department holds
 5    management authority.
 6        "Hunting" means the lawful pursuit,  trapping,  shooting,
 7    capture, collection, or killing of wildlife or the attempt to
 8    pursue, trap, shoot, capture, collect, or kill wildlife.

 9        Section 15.  Recreational hunting.
10        (a)  Subject to valid existing rights, Department-managed
11    lands  shall  be  open  to  access  and  use for recreational
12    hunting except as limited by the Department  for  reasons  of
13    public safety or homeland security or as otherwise limited by
14    law.
15        (b)  The   Department   shall   exercise  its  authority,
16    consistent with subsection  (a),  in  a  manner  to  support,
17    promote,  and  enhance recreational hunting opportunities, to
18    the extent authorized by law. The Department is not  required
19    to   give   preference   to   hunting   over  other  uses  of
20    Department-managed lands or over  land  or  water  management
21    priorities established by State law.
22        (c)  Department land management decisions and actions may
23    not, to the greatest practical extent, result in any net loss
24    of  land  acerage  available  for  hunting  opportunities  on
25    Department-managed lands that exists on the effective date of
26    this amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly.
27        (d)  By October 1 of each year, the Governor shall submit
28    to the General Assembly a written report describing:
29             (1)  the acerage administered by the Department that
30        has  been closed during the previous year to recreational
31        hunting and the reasons for the closures; and
32             (2)  the acerage administered by the Department that
33        was opened to  recreational  hunting  to  compensate  for
 
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 1        those acerage closed under paragraph (1).
 2        (e)  Nothing in this Act shall be construed to compel the
 3    opening to recreational hunting of national parks or national
 4    monuments administered by the National Park Service.

 5        Section  99.  Effective date.  This Act takes effect upon
 6    becoming law.