With certain exceptions, existing law requires a person to obtain a license or permit to hunt or fish any wildlife. Under existing law, a child who is a resident of this State and under 12 years of age, with certain exceptions, is not required to obtain such a license or permit. Under existing law, a child who is not a resident of this State and is under 12 years of age: (1) is required to obtain a license to hunt but not a license to fish; and (2) may not take a number of fish that exceeds 50 percent of the daily creel and possession limits. (NRS 502.010) Section 2 of this bill: (1) eliminates that prohibition; and (2) provides that such a child who is not a resident of this State, with certain exceptions, is also not required to obtain a license to hunt. Existing law authorizes the Board of Wildlife Commissioners to adopt regulations establishing a program through which a person who holds a tag to hunt a big game mammal in this State and has proven that he or she qualifies for an extenuating circumstance may transfer, defer use of or return to the Department of Wildlife his or her tag to hunt a big game mammal in this State. (NRS 502.103) Section 4 of this bill provides that a tag may be deferred under such circumstances only if there will be an open season for the tag that is identical to the current season in the following year. Existing law requires the Commission to adopt regulations providing for the issuance of a duplicate license to replace an unexpired license that has been lost, stolen or destroyed. (NRS 502.110) Section 5 of this bill also requires the Commission to adopt regulations providing for the issuance of a duplicate license to replace an unexpired license that has been surrendered. Existing law requires a person who possesses a tag to hunt a big game mammal and kills an animal that is believed to be diseased and unfit for human consumption to follow certain procedures, including a requirement to provide the whole carcass of the big game mammal for inspection by certain persons. With certain exceptions, if the carcass is determined to be diseased and unfit for human consumption, existing law entitles the holder of the tag who provides the carcass to receive a replacement tag at no charge. (NRS 502.215) Section 9 of this bill provides that, under such circumstances, a person who provides for inspection the carcass of a deer which is infected with chronic wasting disease is not entitled to a replacement tag. With certain exceptions, existing law sets forth fees for certain licenses, permits and tags issued by the Department. (NRS 502.148, 502.240, 502.250) Sections 8, 10 and 12 of this bill remove the amounts for such fees and sections 10 and 12 instead require the Commission to prescribe by regulation initial reasonable fees for such licenses, permits and tags, which must be equal to the fees as the fees existed before the effective date of this bill. Sections 10 and 12 authorize the Commission, after prescribing such initial fees, to increase or decrease a fee adding the current fee to the product obtained by multiplying the current fee by the percentage increase or decrease in the Consumer Price Index between the calendar year in which the fee was established or most recently adjusted, whichever is later, and the calendar year immediately preceding the year for which the adjustment is made. In making such adjustments, sections 10 and 12: (1) prohibit the Commission from increasing or decreasing a fee by an amount that is less than 90 percent or more than 125 percent of the current fee added to the amount calculated by performing the inflationary adjustment; and (2) authorize the fee to be rounded to the nearest whole dollar amount. Section 24 of this bill provides that the existing fees remain in effect until the Commission has established such fees by regulation. Sections 3, 6, 7, 11 and 13-23 of this bill make conforming changes to reflect the removal of the amounts of such fees from existing law. Section 1 of this bill makes a conforming change to refer to provisions that have been renumbered in section 12. Section 12 also revises the types of tags for which the Commission must prescribe fees by regulation. Existing law requires the Department to issue a resident and nonresident 1-day permit to fish and a resident and nonresident 1-day combination permit to fish and hunt upland game birds and migratory game birds and add consecutive days on such 1-day permits upon the payment of a fee for the 1-day permit and the payment of a fee for each consecutive day added to the permit. (NRS 502.240) Existing law also authorizes the Commission to establish the term of a permit. (NRS 502.030) Section 10 instead requires the Department to issue a resident and nonresident limited permits to fish and nonresident limited combination permits which consist of 1 or more consecutive calendar days in accordance with the term of the permit prescribed by the Commission.

Statutes affected:
As Introduced: 501.356, 502.010, 502.072, 502.103, 502.110, 502.142, 502.145, 502.148, 502.215, 502.240, 502.242, 502.250, 502.253, 502.280, 502.294, 502.310, 502.3262, 502.400, 503.200, 503.310, 503.583, 504.310, 504.390
BDR: 501.356, 502.010, 502.072, 502.103, 502.110, 502.142, 502.145, 502.148, 502.215, 502.240, 502.242, 502.250, 502.253, 502.280, 502.294, 502.310, 502.3262, 502.400, 503.200, 503.310, 503.583, 504.310, 504.390