AB 49

This bill makes changes to the wildlife damage abatement program and the

wildlife damage claim program.

Current law authorizes a person who owns, leases, or controls land on which

certain wild animals cause damage to crops or livestock (wildlife damage) to apply

to the county for wildlife damage claim payments and for wildlife damage abatement

assistance (wildlife damage payments). Wildlife damage for which a person is

eligible to receive wildlife damage payments includes damage caused by deer, bears,

geese, and cougars, as well as elk and sandhill cranes if hunting those animals is

authorized. Current law requires that, to be eligible for wildlife damage payments,

the location must be in a county that participates in the administration of these

programs. A county must apply to the Department of Natural Resources to

administer these programs, including in its application a plan of administration that

meets certain requirements. Once approved, DNR provides funding to the county for

the costs incurred in administering these programs.

Under current law and DNR rule, a county pays 75 percent of the actual costs

of providing wildlife damage abatement assistance, for which it is reimbursed by

DNR, and the person receiving the assistance pays 25 percent of the costs. DNR pays

wildlife damage claims directly.

Effective January 1, 2022, this bill removes counties from the administration

of these programs and requires DNR to administer the programs instead. The bill

specifies that, if DNR provides wildlife damage abatement assistance to a person, it

must determine the actual cost of providing that assistance and pay 75 percent of

that cost, leaving the remaining 25 percent as the responsibility of the recipient. The

bill eliminates a $10,000 limit under current law on the total amount that may be

paid to a claimant for each damage claim. The bill maintains the current law

requirement that DNR pay claimants on a prorated basis if there is not a sufficient

amount appropriated to pay all claims.

The bill also eliminates the requirement under current law that a county

participate in the administration of these programs in order to be eligible for

reimbursement by DNR for the costs that the county incurs in processing and

donating venison from certain deer carcasses and in processing and donating meat

from certain wild turkey carcasses.

Under current law, the type of wildlife damage that is eligible for wildlife

damage claim payments is limited to damage to commercial seedings or crops

growing on agricultural land, damage to crops that have been harvested for sale or

further use but that have not been removed from the agricultural land, damage to

orchard trees or nursery stock, and damage to apiaries or livestock. This bill adds

that damage to commercial seedings or crops growing on agricultural land caused by

operating a vehicle in a field in order to place a bear trap under the wildlife damage

abatement program is eligible for a wildlife damage claim payment.