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20LSO-0429
2020
STATE OF WYOMING
20LSO-0429
Numbered
2.0
SENATE FILE NO. SF0135
Migration corridors.
Sponsored by: Senator(s) Perkins and Bebout and Representative(s) Harshman
A BILL
for
AN ACT relating to administration of government; providing for a coordinated effort to protect big game animals from motor vehicle collisions; providing for identification of big game animal migration pathways; specifying duties of state agencies in addressing collisions between big game animals and motor vehicles; providing for the development of plans to form a basis for a comprehensive government and private sector response to protect big game animals and their migration pathways; specifying duties of state agencies in development of plans; providing for reports to legislative committees and for further legislation; imposing a moratorium on state agency actions relating to permitting and natural resource development taken in regards to big game animal migration pathways; providing an appropriation; specifying legislative findings and intent; and providing for an effective date.
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:
Section 1.
(a) Since 1909, Wyoming law has declared that all wild animals and wild birds are the property of the state and has provided that the policy of the state includes protecting Wyoming wildlife. (1909 Wyoming Session Laws, Chapter 163, W.S. 23
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103). As transportation has evolved over the past century, motor vehicle collisions with big game animals in the state have increased. The Wyoming department of transportation and Wyoming game and fish department have worked together to identify big game animal movements which intersect with Wyoming highways and roads. Over the past twenty (20) years the Wyoming department of transportation has undertaken projects to reduce collisions between wildlife and vehicles, allowing tens of thousands of big game animals to move safely across various highways
and roadways in the state. Still, a 2014 study submitted to the Wyoming department of transportation estimated that more than five thousand (5,000) motor vehicle collisions with big game animals had occurred annually over the past three (3) years, and acknowledged that the estimate understated actual collisions. Big game animal movements which intersect with roadways remain a significant issue for the state, both in terms of property damage and wildlife mortality.
(b) Proposed Wyoming Executive Department Executive Order 2020
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1 attempts to address wildlife/vehicle collisions by requiring the Wyoming department of transportation to plan and engineer state and federal highway projects to avoid, minimize and mitigate wildlife/vehicle collisions. The executive order would further require the Wyoming department of transportation to plan and engineer projects to facilitate big game animal movement and support big game animal migration connectivity. Moving beyond the wildlife/vehicle collision issue, the executive order requires, among other things, that state issue permits for activities during migration
periods within designated migration corridors be conditioned on not impeding the functionality of designated corridors by big game animals.
(c) Wyoming provides by law for limitations on state permitted mining activities in general, for consideration of environmental impacts in constructing wind energy facilities, and environmental and wildlife impacts in the siting of industrial facilities and has specifically provided by law a process for administrative agencies to identify areas of the state which are very rare or uncommon and for appropriate protections for such areas. (W.S. 18
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503(a)(xi), 35
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112(a)(v), 35
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406(m)(iv) and 35
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107(b)(x) and (h)(i)). No Wyoming laws provide for the identification or designation of big game animal migration corridors or corresponding state agency permitting activities in regard to big game animal migration corridors.
(d) This law is enacted recognizing:
(i) That big game animal collisions with motor vehicles are a continuing issue in the state;
(ii) That impacts on migration routes affect big game animal movement;
(iii) That development has the potential to affect big game animal migration routes; and
(iv) That current law does not provide for the identification and designation of big game animal migration corridors and that executive orders properly execute but cannot prescribe law.
(e) The legislature declares its intent to provide for a comprehensive review and coordinated approach to the issues of:
(i) Big game animal/motor vehicle collisions;
(ii) The effect of roadway planning and engineering on big game animal migration routes and methods
to reduce or mitigate big game animal/motor vehicle collisions in that planning and engineering;
(iii) The effect development may have on big game animal migration routes;
(iv) Addressing potential negative effects of permitted development activities on big game animal populations;
(v)
Preserving the principles of "multiple use on public lands" and private property rights on private lands;
(vi) Enacting legislation necessary to address the issues specified in this section.
Section 2.
W.S. 23
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302(a) by creating a new paragraph (xxxiii), 24
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102 by creating a new subsection (c) and 24
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107 are amended to read:
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302.
Powers and duties.
(a)
The commission is directed and empowered:
(xxxiii)
To identify big game animal migration pathways used to travel between summer and winter seasonal ranges
which are essential for the productivity of a population or subpopulation based upon research by the game and fish department or other research approved by the commission.
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102.
General powers; power of eminent domain limited.
(c)
The department of transportation may consult with the Wyoming game and fish commission or game and fish department and with the Wyoming wildlife and natural resource trust account board in planning road, state or federal highway and associated projects that intersect or are adjacent to identified big game animal migration pathways to avoid, minimize and mitigate big game animal/motor vehicle collisions, facilitate big game animal movement or support big game animal migration connectivity.
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107.
Required reports.
The director of the department of transportation shall make an annual report to the commission of the transactions of the department, and on or before December first of each even
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numbered year, the commission shall, as required by W.S. 9
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1014, report to the governor.
The director shall identify in the annual report components of road and highway projects specifically constructed to
avoid, minimize or mitigate big game animal/motor vehicle collisions, facilitate big game animal movement or support big game animal migration connectivity.
Section 3.
(a) The Wyoming game and fish commission and department shall coordinate with the state transportation commission and department of transportation and report by September 1, 2020 to the joint transportation, highways and military affairs interim committee:
(i) The extent of big game animal/motor vehicle collisions currently and over the last ten (10) years;
(ii) Efforts undertaken by the departments to reduce big game animal/motor vehicle collisions in the past through road and highway project planning and engineering and estimated costs and benefits of those efforts;
(iii) Recommendations
for additional legislation and immediate and sustained funding to accommodate identified
big game animal migration pathways or to help
avoid, minimize or mitigate big game animal/motor vehicle collisions.
(b) The Wyoming game and fish commission and department shall coordinate with the environmental quality council, the department of environmental quality and the oil and gas conservation commission and report to the joint travel, recreation, wildlife and cultural resources interim committee and to the joint minerals, business and economic development interim committee no later than October 1, 2020:
(i) Recommended procedures and potential substantive conditions on permits issued by each agency to address impacts of surface and subsurface activities in order to protect the annual movement of big game animals between seasonal ranges and to maintain the continued functionality of migration pathways used by big game animals. The recommendations shall include:
(A) How the permitting agency will work with private landowners to build upon efforts to conserve big game animal migration pathway habitats;
(B) How procedures and conditions might be adjusted based upon local conditions, opportunities and limitations;
(C)
How existing rights shall be recognized and not affected without permission of the permit holder;
(D)
How county and municipal land use plans should be accommodated in the permitting process.
(ii)
Recommendations
for legislation to provide authorization to adopt procedures and impose substantive conditions on permits to address the issues specified in this subsection. The rec
ommendations shall include a process under which big game animal migration pathways identified pursuant to W.S. 23
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302(a)(xxxiii) may be separately identified in order to
include additional procedural requirements or substantive conditions on permits
. Any recommendation for a separate identification shall include an opportunity for public hearings and accommodations for conducting further research in order to ensure the recommended designation accomplishes the purposes necessary to a specific species or specific pathway.
(c) The joint minerals, business and economic development interim committee and joint travel, recreation, wildlife and cultural resources interim committee shall meet jointly to consider the report submitted under subsection (b) of this section. Each committee shall develop and introduce legislation in the 2021 general
session to authorize and implement the procedures and substantive provisions the committee determines appropriate to accomplish the goals of section 1 of this act and subsection (b) of this section.
(d) The joint transportation, highways and military affairs interim committee shall meet to consider the report submitted under subsection (a) of this section and shall develop and introduce legislation in the 2021 general session to authorize and implement the procedures and substantive provisions the committee determines appropriate to accomplish the goals of section 1 of this act and subsection (a) of this section.
Section 4.
(a)
No state agency shall issue, condition, renew, refuse to issue or refuse to renew any permit regulating the development of any natural resource in the state based
solely upon the existence
of a big game animal migration pathway or designation of a big game animal migration corridor
, whether or not identified as such by the game and
fish commission pursuant to W.S. 23
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302(a)(xxxiii) so long as this subsection is effective.
No applicant for a permit specified in this section shall be required to engage with any state agency as part of the permitting process based
solely upon the existence of a big game animal migration pathway or designation of a big game animal migration corridor,
whether or not identified as such by the game and fish commission pursuant to W.S. 23
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302(a)(xxxiii) so long as this subsection is effective.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the authority of any state agency to implement or enforce any existing law which:
(i) Governs an activity subject to a permit and which provides for identification or consideration of the activity's effect on wildlife; or
(ii) Provides for an agency to plan or take other action to protect the state's wildlife.
(b) Subsection (a) of this section is repealed April 1, 2021.
Section 5.
(a)
There is appropriated fifty
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five thousand dollars ($55,000.00) from the general fund to the legislative service office for purposes of providing salary, mileage and per diem for legislators’ actual attendance at committee meetings as provided in this act. This appropriation shall be for the period beginning with the effective date of this act and ending June 30, 2021. This appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose and any unexpended, unobligated funds remaining from this appropriation shall revert as provided by law on June 30, 2021.
Section 6.
This act is effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.
(END)
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SF0135