Bill Cochran

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Bills that would have a serious impact on the way we hunt, fish, boat and trap are being introduced at a brisk rate in the 2008 Virginia General Assembly, including one that would lift the ban on Sunday hunting and another that would fire current members of the board of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Here are some issues to keep an eye on:

SUNDAY HUNTING

Every session in recent years has seen one to three bills introduced that would ease or remove Virginia’s ban on Sunday hunting. They’ve always failed, and that likely will be the fate of this year’s attempt, SB 524, introduced by Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach. It would strike all references to Sunday hunting in the code, making Sunday a day of hunting just like any other day of the week.

While there is growing interest in hunting on Sunday, what has been lacking is any credible, organized move to get behind the effort. It is going to take more than someone just dumping a bill in the hopper.

DGIF UNDER ATTACK

Legislation has been introduced that reflects distrust and downright disgust of the DGIF. HB 1352, whose patron is R.L. Ware, R-Powhatan, would dismiss current DGIF board members and start fresh with new appointees. The bill also changes the way board members are appointed, mandates that they must have held a hunting or fishing license three consecutive years prior to their appointment and limits the term of the board chairman to one year.

Other bills would mandate greater accountability within the agency, something the current board already has made huge strides in accomplishing.

APPRENTICE LICENSE

There is a growing feeling that it should be easier for people to give hunting a try in order to see if it is something they would like to take up. Right now, entry-level participants first must pass a lengthy hunter education course and spend a chunk of change for licenses. Some simply say, “Forget it,” and license sales lag as a result.

Identical legislation introduced in the House and Senate would establish an apprentice hunting license that would temporarily waive the hunter education requirement and sell for a modest $10 for residents and $20 for non residents. It would be a one-time license, good for one year, and the user would have to be under direct supervision of licensed hunter 18-years old or above.

A similar set-up has been successful in several states. The bills are expected to receive the blessing of the DGIF. They are HB 1175, introduced by Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William County, and SB 617, introduced by former DGIF board members Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach.

RETRIEVING DOGS

Hunters have the right to go onto private property to retrieve their dogs, but they’d best not do it while carrying a gun or bow under a bill introduced by Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville. His SB 263 calls for forfeiture of the gun or bow being carried and the loss of hunting rights for the current and following seasons. It already is against the law to carry weapons onto private land without permission to retrieve dogs, but the penalty is no where near this stiff.

Deeds, who has announced he will run for governor, unwisely decided not to wait for the outcome of a major study being conducted by DGIF on hound/landowner relationships.

BLAZE ORANGE

Hunters would be spending considerable more time wearing blaze orange, and more of it, under HB 872 introduced by Joseph Johnson, D-Abingdon. For the first time, blaze orange would be required during the muzzleloading season.

The bill mandates blaze orange “during any firearms deer season,” which I take to mean that anytime there is any firearm’s deer season in progress all other hunters, including turkey, varmint and bow would be required to wear blaze orange. This becomes a bit tricky in view of the fact that there are many overlapping season. Waterfowl hunters are exempt and so are bowhunters in areas where the discharge of firearms is prohibited by state or local ordinance.

Muzzleloaders, by the way, have an admirable safety record when it comes to serious gunshot wounds, but there was a fatality the past season in Bath County.

The amount of blaze orange required under Johnson’s bill would more than double, from 100-square inches to 250-squire inches. Anyone accompanying a hunter would be under the same requirements.

CHASING BEARS

Organized hound hunters want to be able to chase bears at night during the training season. This would give hunters who work the dayshift more opportunity to hunt, and it would provide cooler temperatures to work dogs.

Bear hunters have taken their request for night chasing to the DGIF, but it has gone unheeded, so it now comes up in the General Assembly via HB 886 introduced by Matthew Lohr, R-Harrisonburg.

Here again, is an issue that should be handled by the DGIF not the General Assembly.

LIFE JACKETS FOR KIDS

David Poisson, D-Sterling, believes that kids age 12 and under should be required by law to wear a life preserver when on a recreational boat less than 21 feet, unless they are in an enclosed cabin or below deck. His HB 1250 would mandate that, but the likelihood of it passing is slim. Recent sessions have seen similar bills fail.

DGIF has not given it much support in the past, although the agency highly recommends the use of personal flotation devices.

TRAPPING:

Trappers would receive a break through two bill introduced by R. L. Ware. His HB 114 would let trappers mark their traps with an identification number, issued by DGIF, rather than the current required name and address.

His HB 115 would authorize DGIF to allow trappers to visit complete submerged Conibear-style body-griping traps every 72 hours instead of the current 24 hours.

TURKEY GUNS

Hunters often debate whether rifles should be used in the hunting of turkeys. SB 365 introduced by Sen. John Watkins, R-Midlothian, would give counties the option of prohibiting rifles in turkey hunting.

No matter how you come down on the issue, the bill is a bad one because it meddles in an issue that should be left to the DGIF.

BAITING DEER

Virginia wildlife officials long have been opposed to hunting over bait; in fact, they have tightened baiting loopholes recently. But should hunters be allowed to use bait when dealing with nuisance deer?

HB 1016, introduced by Timothy Hugo, R-Centerville, would give the DGIF authority to authorize the killing of deer over bait in counties/cities that request this option for the special late-antlerless season.

SESSION OF THE DOG

According to a recent count by Bob Kane, president of the Virginia Hunting Dog Owners’ Association, no less than 26 animal-related bills have been introduced in the early going of this session, many of them impacting dogs, their breeding and their owners. The Humane Society of the United States has retained a Richmond lobbing firm “to push its anti-breeding, anti-owner agenda,” said Kane.

“The majority of these bill are extremely ill-considered; the most obvious of these is HB 538, [which is] HSUS’s effort to regulate Old Dominion hobby breeders, introduced by Bobby Orrock, [R-Thornburg],” Kane said.

RIGHT TO FLOAT

Just what right the public has to float, fish and navigate waters of the state often is open to speculation, not to mention confusion. HJ 114, introduced by Matthew Lohr, R-Harrisonburg, appears to be an effort to clear this up through the appointment of a six-member joint subcommittee assigned to study the issue.