Louisiana Administrative Code › Title 76 - WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES › Part V - Wild Quadrupeds and Wild Birds › Chapter 1 - Wild Quadrupeds › Section V-123 - Coastwide Nutria Control Program

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
A. The
				Department of Wildlife and Fisheries does hereby establish regulations
				governing participation in the Coastwide Nutria Control Program. The
				administrative responsibility for this program shall rest with the Department
				Secretary; the Assistant Secretary, Office of Wildlife; and the Fur and Refuge
				Division.
1. The Coastwide Nutria Control
				Program objective is to provide economic incentive, through an incentive
				payment to participants, to encourage the harvest of up to 400,000 nutria
				annually from coastal Louisiana. The incentive payment shall be the amount set
				by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) Task
				Force. For the purpose of this program, coastal Louisiana is bounded on the
				north by Interstate 10 from the Louisiana-Texas line to Baton Rouge, Interstate
				12 from Baton Rouge to Slidell, and Interstate 10 to the Louisiana-Mississippi
				line.
2. Participant Application
				Process
a. Participants must acquire a valid
				Louisiana trapping license.
b.
				Participants must submit a completed nutria control program participant
				application to the department or its contractor.
c. To be considered complete, the application
				must contain the following information:
i.
				name;
ii. address;
iii. telephone number;
iv. Social Security number, and trapping
				license number of applicant;
v. tax
				receipt and a description of property to be trapped/hunted (acres, parish,
				township, range, section);
vi.
				name, address, and telephone number of landowner (private or public);
vii. signature of participant; and
viii. signature of landowner or designated
				representative indicating permission to hunt or trap nutria on the described
				property.
d. For
				applications determined to be complete and valid, the participant will be
				notified by mail that his/her registration is finalized and a nutria control
				program registration number will be issued.
e. The participant must indicate if an
				assistant will be delivering tails on his behalf to a collection center and the
				participant must provide the name of the assistant(s) on the
				application.
f. Applications
				submitted to the department or its contractor by October 1 shall be processed
				by the opening of trapping season. Applications submitted to the department or
				its contractor after October 1 shall be processed in the order
				received.
g. Applications listing
				only waterbodies, without signature of an adjacent landowner or designated
				representative, shall be considered incomplete.
h. Applications determined to be incomplete
				or invalid will be returned to the applicant with an explanation as to why
				registration could not be finalized.
3. Harvest of Nutria
a. Participants must possess a valid trapping
				license and a nutria control program registration number.
b. Only nutria harvested during the open
				trapping season, from coastal Louisiana and taken from property permitted can
				be included in this program.
c.
				Nutria may be taken by any legal method except that if taken with a shotgun,
				steel shot must be used.
d.
				Participants are required to remove carcasses from the trapping/hunting area or
				if carcasses are not sold whole, they must be placed in such a manner as to
				prohibit feeding on the carcasses by birds, including southern bald eagles.
				Carcasses may be buried, placed in heavy overhead vegetation or concealed by
				any other means necessary to prevent consumption by birds.
4. Collection of Nutria Tails for Payment
a. Collection stations will be established
				across coastal Louisiana by the department or its contractor.
b. Evidence of nutria harvested shall be in
				the form of delivering severed nutria tails to a collection station during a
				designated period. Collections will begin on or about November 20. Specific
				dates and times of collections will be established and advertised for each
				station.
c. Participant or a
				designated assistant must present the nutria control registration number and
				proper identification to the department contractor.
d. Participant or designated assistant shall
				present to the department contractor only fresh or well-preserved (iced,
				frozen, salted) nutria tails in a manner that allows counting of individual
				tails (e.g., tails cannot be frozen together in a block). Only whole tails,
				greater than 7 inches in length will be accepted.
e. Participant shall declare parish, section,
				township, and range in coastal Louisiana where animals were taken and indicate
				method of take and carcass use. Tails from animals taken from outside of the
				participants permitted property shall not qualify for payment in this
				program.
f. Participant shall sign
				the receipt/voucher provided by the department contractor to acknowledge number
				of tails presented and accuracy of information provided.
5. Violation of any part of these regulations
				is a Class 2 violation and conviction may result in disqualification from the
				program.