ENROLLED

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

Senate Bill No. 156

(Senators Whitlow and Bailey, original sponsors)

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[Passed March 9, 1996; in effect ninety days from passage.]

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AN ACT to amend and reenact section thirty-five, article three, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to prohibiting persons from digging cultivated ginseng on lands of another without the owner's consent; land must be posted; and penalties.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section thirty-five, article three, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY.

§61-3-35. Digging cultivated ginseng; penalty.

It shall be unlawful for any person to dig cultivated ginseng or prospect for the same, on the lands of another without the consent of the owner or owners thereof first obtained. The property must be properly posted with "No Trespassing" signs, "Private Property" signs, or other signs that explain to a person to stay off the property. The signs must be of reasonable size to be read by an average person and must be posted at reasonable intervals of at least two hundred feet around the property.
Any person violating this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars.