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2001 General Session
SF 102 is broadly considered to be the most important wildlife bill of the 2001 Session and would require the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to control, propagate, manage, protect and regulate all Wyoming wildlife as a public trust for present and future generations.
SF 102 is one of 5 bills in the 2001 session's Public Access Package (along with SF 102, game and fish public trust; SF 105, hunting without permission; HB 36, Posting of Restrictions on Roads and Lands; HB 38, Recreating on State Lands; and HB 39, High Water Mark-Boating). Each bill enjoyed bi-partisan sponsorship.
SF 102 died in the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee on a party-line 2-3 vote and is dead for the 2001 General Session.
* SF 102, game and fish public trust
* SF 105, hunting without permission
* HB 36, posting of restrictions on roads and lands
* HB 38, recreating on state lands
* HB 39, high water mark-boating
During the 2000 election campaigns, candidates from both political parties strongly embraced the issues of public access to public lands and wildlife protection for present and future generations. With broad, bi-partisan support from both Republican and Democrat candidates during the 2000 election campaigns, advocates for public access and wildlife issues, such as the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, were bullish on the prospects for bi-partisan support for landmark legislation this 2001 session.
Now, all five bills that comprise the package of public access and wildlife protection bills for the 2001 session are dead:
SF 102 would have required the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to control, propagate, manage, protect and regulate all Wyoming wildlife as a public trust for present and future generations.
SF 105 would have added to Wyoming's trespass law the element of knowingly trespassing to the offense of hunting, fishing or trapping on private property without permission. This issue is particularly compelling in the regions of the state where there is a mix of private and public lands, for example the "checkerboard" of ownerships in southwest Wyoming.
HB 36 would prohibit landowners from improperly posting a notice to restrict access to a public road or public lands, and provides for citations and penalties for violations of the law.
HB 38 would authorize citizens to camp, hunt, fish and engage in other recreational activity on state lands.
HB 39 would allow boaters to use all waters of the state that are capable of floating watercraft, except in cases where it is prohibited by other laws. The bill would allow boaters to disembark from their craft and use any land below the high water mark for all legal recreational activities.
SF 102 and SF 105 were heard but killed on party-line votes in the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, with Senators Ken Decaria, D-Evanston, and Mike Massie, D-Laramie, voting in favor of hunter, angler and public-land recreator's interests and Senators Carroll Miller, R-Shell, Delaine Roberts, R-Etna, and Steve Youngbauer, R-Gillette, voting against the interests of the sportsmen and women of our state.
HB 36, HB 38 and HB 39 were referred to the House Agriculture, Public Lands and Water Resources Committee. But Representative James Hageman, chair, R-Fort Laramie, was heard publically saying that he did not like the bills because of conflicts with his ranching operation near Fort Laramie. Subsequently, Chair Hageman "pocket-vetoed" all three bills by not allowed any of the three bills to even be heard in his committee.
1/29 Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources C. Killed the
bill
Ayes 2 -- Nays 3 -- Excused 0 -- Absent 0 -- Conflicts 0
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Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife |
1/29/01 |
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Carroll Miller |
R-Shell(Chairman) |
No |
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Ken Decaria |
D-Evanston |
Yes |
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Mike Massie |
D-Laramie |
Yes |
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Delaine Roberts |
R-Etna |
No |
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Steve Youngbauer |
R-Gillette |
No |
| Ayes 2 -- Nays 3 --Excused 0--Absent 0--Conflicts 0 | ||