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1 | AN ACT concerning wildlife.
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2 | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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3 | represented in the General Assembly:
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4 | Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the | |||||||||||||||||||
5 | Illinois Hunting
Heritage Protection Act.
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6 | Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds the | |||||||||||||||||||
7 | following:
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8 | (1) Recreational hunting is an important and | |||||||||||||||||||
9 | traditional recreational
activity in which 14,000,000 | |||||||||||||||||||
10 | Americans 16 years of age and older participate.
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11 | (2) Hunters have been and continue to be among the | |||||||||||||||||||
12 | foremost supporters of
sound wildlife management and | |||||||||||||||||||
13 | conservation practices in the United States.
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14 | (3) Persons who hunt and organizations related to | |||||||||||||||||||
15 | hunting provide direct
assistance to wildlife managers and | |||||||||||||||||||
16 | enforcement officers of federal, state, and
local | |||||||||||||||||||
17 | governments.
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18 | (4) Purchases of hunting licenses, permits, and stamps | |||||||||||||||||||
19 | and payment of
excise taxes on
goods used by hunters have | |||||||||||||||||||
20 | generated billions of dollars for wildlife
conservation, | |||||||||||||||||||
21 | research, and management.
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22 | (5) Recreational hunting is an essential component of | |||||||||||||||||||
23 | effective wildlife
management, in that it is an important | |||||||||||||||||||
24 | tool for reducing conflicts between
people and wildlife and | |||||||||||||||||||
25 | provides incentives for the conservation of wildlife,
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26 | habitats, and ecosystems on which wildlife depend.
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27 | (6) Recreational hunting is an environmentally | |||||||||||||||||||
28 | acceptable activity that
occurs and can be provided for on | |||||||||||||||||||
29 | State public lands without adverse effects on
other uses of | |||||||||||||||||||
30 | that land.
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31 | Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this Act:
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1 | "Department" means the Department of Natural Resources.
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2 | "Department-managed lands" means those lands that the | ||||||
3 | Department owns or
those lands of which the Department holds | ||||||
4 | management authority.
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5 | "Hunting" means the lawful pursuit, trapping, shooting, | ||||||
6 | capture, collection,
or killing of wildlife or the attempt to | ||||||
7 | pursue, trap, shoot, capture, collect,
or kill wildlife.
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8 | Section 15. Recreational hunting.
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9 | (a) Subject to valid existing rights, Department-managed | ||||||
10 | lands shall be open
to
access and use for recreational hunting | ||||||
11 | except as limited by the Department for
reasons of public | ||||||
12 | safety or homeland security or as otherwise limited by law.
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13 | (b) The Department shall exercise its authority, | ||||||
14 | consistent with subsection
(a), in a manner to support, | ||||||
15 | promote, and enhance recreational hunting
opportunities, to | ||||||
16 | the extent authorized by law.
The Department is not required to | ||||||
17 | give preference to hunting over other uses
of | ||||||
18 | Department-managed lands or over land or water management | ||||||
19 | priorities
established by State law.
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20 | (c) Department land management decisions and actions may | ||||||
21 | not, to the
greatest practical extent, result in any net loss | ||||||
22 | of land acreage available for
hunting opportunities on | ||||||
23 | Department-managed lands that exists on the effective
date of | ||||||
24 | this amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly.
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25 | (d) By October 1 of each year, the Governor shall submit to | ||||||
26 | the General
Assembly
a written report describing:
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27 | (1) the acreage administered by the Department that has | ||||||
28 | been closed during
the
previous year to recreational | ||||||
29 | hunting and the reasons for the closures; and
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30 | (2) the acreage administered by the Department that was | ||||||
31 | opened to
recreational
hunting to compensate for those | ||||||
32 | acreage closed under paragraph (1).
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33 | (e) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to compel the | ||||||
34 | opening to
recreational hunting of national parks or national | ||||||
35 | monuments administered by
the National Park Service.
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1 | Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon | ||||||
2 | becoming law.
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