Senate Bill No. 554
(By Senators White, Bailey, Bowman and Love)
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[Introduced February 17, 2003; referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section forty-four-b, article two,
chapter twenty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to increasing the
cost of a bear damage stamp from four to ten dollars;
expanding the purposes for which the proceeds from a bear
damage stamp may be used; and requiring that a bear damage
stamp be purchased prior to bear hunting season.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section forty-four-b, article two, chapter twenty of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. WILDLIFE RESOURCES.
§20-2-44b. Bear damage stamp; proceeds to be paid into bear
damage fund; purposes, etc.
Any hunter licensed to hunt bear in this state shall in addition to a hunting license of either Class A, or AB, in the case
of a resident, or C, E, EE, L, LL or M, in the case of a
nonresident, have a bear damage stamp which shall be issued by the
department of natural resources and which shall be sold at places
where hunting and fishing licenses are sold. The fee for a bear
damage stamp shall be four ten dollars. and All proceeds from the
sale of such bear damage stamps shall be paid into the bear damage
fund which shall be maintained by the department of natural
resources for the purposes of paying claims of property owners for
damages to real and personal property caused by acts of bear, and
to cover the expense of hunting, capturing and removing an
offending bear to remote areas and for black bear research programs
within this state.
A bear damage stamp must be purchased prior to the beginning
of bear hunting season. A bear damage stamp purchased during a
bear hunting season or after a bear hunting season is closed is not
valid until the next bear hunting season in the calendar year in
which the bear damage stamp was purchased.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to increase the cost of the
bear damage stamp from four to ten dollars, expand the purposes for
which the proceeds from the bear damage stamp may be used and
require that a bear damage stamp be purchased prior to bear hunting
season.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.