Source: https://nysapfapp.wsg.net/law/fish-and-wildlife/
Timestamp: 2020-07-11 04:25:49
Document Index: 152605017

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 4', '§ 11', '§ 11']

Fish and Wildlife – NYS APF
Primary Citation: McKinney’s E. C. L. § 11-0501 to 11-0539
Alternate Citation: NY ENVIR CONSER § 11-0501 to 11-0539
Summary: This set of New York statutes provides some of the state’s fish and wildlife laws. Among the provisions include a prohibition against interference with wildlife, restriction on the possession and importation of certain wildlife such as wolves, wolfdogs, coyotes, coydogs, foxes, skunks, and venomous reptiles, and laws that allows individuals to take destructive wildlife. No person shall knowingly possess, harbor, sell, barter, transfer, exchange or import any wild animal for use as a pet in New York state, except that any person who possessed a wild animal for use as a pet at the time that this section went effect may retain possession of such animal for the remainder of its life.
a. A regional fish and wildlife management board shall be appointed in each of the regions established under subdivision 3 of this section. Such regional board shall consist of three members from each county within the region which has appointed its members. In each county, one member shall be a member of or represent the board of supervisors or county legislative body, one member shall represent the landowners of the county and one member shall represent the sportsmen of the county. Such members from each county shall be appointed by the chairman of the board of supervisors of such county with the approval of the board of supervisors, except that in a county having a county president, a county executive or other chief executive officer, the chief executive officer shall appoint the members representing such county with the approval of the board of supervisors of such county. In a county having an elected legislative body the presiding officer shall appoint the members representing such county with the approval of the legislative body. If there is no presiding officer then the members representing such county shall be appointed by the legislative body as a whole. If a member of the board of supervisors or legislative body is not available to actively participate on the fish and wildlife management board, a representative shall be selected who is an elected county official or who is employed by the county government in a position having administrative or managerial authority. A landowner representative must actually reside upon rural lands within the county and actually be engaged in the operation of such lands for production of agricultural commodities or forest products. If a landowner representative with such qualifications is not available to actively participate on the fish and wildlife management board, a representative may be appointed who has been for at least five of the past ten years, before commencing his first term in any series of consecutive terms, engaged in such operation of rural lands, and who resides within the county he represents. If no landowner representative with either of these qualifications is available to actively participate on the fish and wildlife management board a representative may be appointed who is a resource manager engaged in such operations on rural lands, and designated by the corporate owner of those lands to represent the landowner’s agricultural or silvicultural interests. In the case of certain counties designated by the full state board with a scarcity of rural lands operated for production of agricultural commodities or forest products, the landowner representative shall own such rural lands in New York state, whether or not those properties lie within the county wherein he resides and represents. A sportsman representative must be a resident of the county. The said chief executive officer, presiding officer or legislative body shall receive and consider for appointment as the landowner representative, the recommendations made by the county farm bureau and Pomona grange, and for appointment as the sportsmen’s representative, the recommendations made by the county units of organized sportsmen’s groups, as well as considering the advantages of new representatives. The term of office of regional board members shall be two calendar years. A member shall be eligible for reappointment to successive terms of office where otherwise qualified. The term of the sportsmen’s representative and the board of supervisors or county legislative body representative shall expire at the end of the odd numbered years; the term of the landowner representative shall expire at the end of the even numbered years. An alternate board of supervisors or county legislative body representative, sportsmen’s representative and landowner representative may also be appointed, who shall be available to serve in the event of the temporary inability of the member sportsmen’s representative or member landowner representative or board of supervisors or county legislative body representative to so function. A vacancy in membership of a regional board shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment for the balance of the unexpired term during which the vacancy occurs; if a supervisor member or county legislative body member shall cease to be a supervisor or member of the legislative body before the expiration of his term as a member of the regional board, a successor shall be appointed for the unexpired balance of the term as a member of the regional board. The chairman of the Board of Directors of each soil and water conservation district and the chairman of each regional forest practice board within the fish and wildlife management region, or his or their representatives, shall be advisory members without vote.
b. Each regional board shall elect annually from its members a chairman, a vice chairman and a representative to the state board and may elect a secretary. The regional supervisor for natural resources may serve as secretary of the board if the board so requests, but in any event such supervisor’s services shall always be available to the board.
1. The department may issue to any person a license revocable at its pleasure to collect or possess fish, wildlife, shellfish, crustacea, or aquatic insects, birds’ nests or eggs for propagation, banding, scientific or exhibition purposes. The department in its discretion may require an applicant to pay a license fee of ten dollars, and to file a bond of two hundred dollars to be approved by the department that he or she will not violate any provisions of this article. Each licensee shall file with the department a report containing such information as the department may require. Such license shall be in force for one year only and shall not be transferable.
§ 11-0516. Repealed by L.2005, c. 10, § 4, eff. March 15, 2005
This section authorizing DEC to issue permits to take wildlife “whenever it becomes a nuisance” furnishes ample authority to issue permits to control the population of deer, the Department ruled in DEC Declaratory Ruling 11-06 (Coalition to Save the Deer) (1994). DEC there noted, “[i]t is the excess numbers of deer that create the nuisance, whether it is destruction of crops and ornamental vegetation or deer-vehicle collisions.” The Department went on to rule that nuisance permits are valid year-round, and not limited to the deer-hunting season, since the statute provides for permits “to take any wildlife at any time whenever it becomes a nuisance …” The ruling cited, and dovetails with, Humane Society of U.S. v. County of Monroe, 192 A.D.2d 1139, 596 N.Y.S.2d 222 (4th Dept. 1993), which held nuisance permits authorize taking deer even in a park otherwise closed to hunting.
However, nuisance permits, DEC held, do not allow the holder to trespass on private lands without the owner’s permission. Such trespassing by hunters is barred by § 11-2115. Nor do nuisance permits authorize shooting where a local law prohibits it, DEC noted in a subsequent clarification of this ruling. Finally, the ruling held nuisance permits may allow the baiting of deer, discussed in the Commentary to § 11-0903.
2. Any bear killing or worrying livestock on land occupied or cultivated, or destroying an apiary thereon, may be taken or killed, at any time, by shooting or device to entrap or entice on such land, by the owner, lessee or occupant thereof, or any member of the owner’s, lessee’s or occupant’s immediate family or by any person employed by such owner, lessee or occupant. The owner or occupant of such lands shall promptly notify the nearest environmental conservation officer and deliver to such officer the carcass of any bear killed pursuant to this subdivision. The environmental conservation officer shall dispose of the carcass as the department may direct.
5. Any person licensed pursuant to this section shall submit annually a report to the department which specifies each client’s name and address, the date work was performed, the species controlled, the abatement method used, the disposition of the animal, and any other information as required by the department. The department shall annually update a list of nuisance wildlife control operators and make it available to the public in both printed and electronic formats.
4. Not later than the last day of each of the months of June, September, December and March the county treasurer of each such county which has been certified under section 11-0525 and approved under this section, and has incurred expenditures pursuant to the provisions of this section during the three months’ period ending on such days, shall make a report to the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation of the amount of such expenditures and apply for the state reimbursement herein authorized.
4. Employees of children’s camps as defined in subdivision one of section one thousand four hundred of the public health law shall be exempt from the provisions of subdivisions one and two of this section, provided such activities are carried out within the scope of said employment.
1. Except as provided in subdivision three hereof, no part of the skin or body, whether raw or manufactured, of the following species of wild animals or the animal itself may be sold or offered for sale by any individual, firm, corporation, association or partnership within the state of New York :–Leopard (Panthera pardus), Snow Leopard (Uuncia), Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), Tiger (Panthera tigres), Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica), Cheetah (Acinoyx jubatus), Alligators, Caiman or Crocodile of the Order Crocodylia (except as provided in subdivision two of this section), tortoises of the genus Gopherus, marine turtles of the family Cheloniidae and the family Dermochelidae, Vicuna (Vicugna vicugna), Wolf (Canis lupus), Red Wolf (Canis niger), or Tasmanian Forester Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus tasmaniensis) or Polar Bear (Thalarctos maritimus), Mountain Lion, sometimes called Cougar (Felis Concolar), Jaguar (Panthera onca), Ocelot (Felis pardalis), or Margay (Felis wiedii), Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), or Black Rhinoceros (Dicero bicornis).
c. maintaining comprehensive data management systems integrating information on the location and status of rare plants, animals, and ecological communities, and analyzing and interpreting such information for the purpose of conserving and managing the state’s biological diversity.
5. No provision contained in this section shall in any way be construed to diminish or extend the department’s authority to protect threatened or endangered species of wildlife or rare, threatened or endangered species of plants pursuant to sections 9-1503, 11-0535 and 11-0536 of this chapter or any other provision of law.