Relating to nonresident deer hunting on land owned or formerly owned by nonresidents and making penalties applicable

Current law allows a nonresident landowner to apply for one of up to 6,000 antlered or any sex deer hunting licenses issued by the natural resource commission for nonresidents. The bill allows a nonresident landowner to apply once per year for two antlered or any sex deer hunting licenses for use on the nonresident landowner’s property. Licenses issued in this manner are not included in the allotment of nonresident deer hunting licenses issued by the commission. If one or more parcels of land have multiple nonresident landowners, no more than two nonresident landowner deer hunting licenses may be used on a shared parcel. The department shall require proof of land ownership from the nonresident landowner and the nonresident landowner shall enter a wild animal depredation agreement with the department for purposes of limiting potential damage to crops, horticultural products, trees, and nurseries due to wild animals. If the nonresident landowner owns additional land that the department of agriculture and land stewardship determines is suitable for crop or livestock production, the nonresident landowner shall include with the application an affidavit explaining the nonresident landowner’s efforts to secure a beginning farmer as a tenant.24, subsection 2, and who has a family member who currently qualifies as an owner on the same property. The bill extends the privilege to hunt without a license on one’s own land to former owners. The bill makes the former owner eligible to receive free deer hunting licenses for use on the property and purchase additional antlerless deer only deer hunting licenses for use on the property. If the commission establishes a deer hunting season to occur in the first quarter of a calendar year that is separate from a deer hunting season that continues from the last quarter of the preceding calendar year, each former owner of a farm unit in a zone where a deer hunting season is established may receive a free deer hunting license for each of the calendar quarters for use on the farm unit. A person who violates a provision of the bill is subject to a scheduled fine of $25.