Senate Bill No. 520
(By Senators Love, Minear, Ross, Deem, Mitchell, Dittmar,
Schoonover, Fanning, Bowman, Ball and Hunter)
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[Introduced February 12, 1999; referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend article two, chapter twenty of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
by adding thereto a new section, designated section sixty- four; and to amend article three of said chapter by adding
thereto a new section, designated section three-a, all
relating to authorizing the director of the division of
natural resources to lease land from private landowners to
create wildlife management areas for public hunting, fishing
and other such recreational uses; creating a leased-land
public hunting and fishing stamp; allocation of proceeds
from stamp; and proposal of rules.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article two, chapter twenty of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section sixty-four; and that article three of said chapter be amended by
adding thereto a new section, designated section three-a, all to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. WILDLIFE RESOURCES.
§20-2-64. Leased land public hunting and fishing stamp.
No person may hunt or fish on a wildlife management area
which is leased from a private landowner pursuant to section
three-a, article three of this chapter without first procuring a
leased land public hunting and fishing stamp as provided in this
section. A stamp shall be issued to each hunting or fishing
license applicant upon request and payment of a fee of five
dollars, together with any license agent fees imposed by this
article. All fees collected from the sale of this stamp shall be
appropriated to the division for the purpose of leasing land from
private landowners and for providing appropriate game management
and law enforcement of such wildlife management areas created
pursuant to section three-a, article three of this chapter.
ARTICLE 3. FORESTS AND WILDLIFE AREAS.
§20-3-3a. Authority of director to lease private lands to create
wildlife management areas for public hunting, fishing and other recreational purposes.
The director is authorized to lease lands from private
landowners for the purpose of creating wildlife management areas for public hunting, fishing and other such recreational uses. A
leased land public hunting and fishing stamp, as set forth in
section sixty-four, article two of this chapter, is required to
hunt or fish on such leased land, and all proceeds from this
stamp shall be appropriated to the division for the purpose of
leasing land from private landowners pursuant to this section and
for providing appropriate game management and law enforcement of
the leased land. The director shall propose rules for
legislative approval in accordance with the provisions of article
three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code to carry out the
provisions of this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the director
of the Division of Natural Resources to lease land from private
landowners to create wildlife management areas for public
hunting, fishing and other such recreational uses. A fee of $5
is assessed for a Leased Land Public Hunting and Fishing Stamp,
and the proceeds collected from the stamp are to be used for
leasing such private land, and for providing game management and
law enforcement of the land.
§§20-2-64 and 20-3-3a are new; therefore, strike-throughs
and underscoring have been omitted.