H.B. 326 Animal Depredation Amendments: transcript

Yeah. Thank you Mr. Chair. And committee. Uh, there is an amendment that, uh, we'll need to move, uh, that's online and, uh, when the time's right, we'll move that, but I'll be speaking to the whole bill.

So this, uh, legislation here updates, uh, Utah statutes regarding agricultural and wildlife damage caused by animal depredation. Primary highlights of the bill include significantly escalating enforcement measures and penalties related to feral swine. Uh, many of you may not be aware, but there's been feral swine introduced into our state, primarily in Washington County. And, uh, this bill prevents the hunting of feral swine in the state. And we need to eradicate these feral swine 'cause they can cause significant damage to crops and, and folks, and, uh, many people are wondering, oh, why can't we hunt 'em then? Well, the problem is if you open up hunting to these and people are gonna want to hunt them, and they're gonna want to bring more into the state. So these have been being transferred into our state from, I'm not sure that we know where, uh, maybe Texas, Texas and Oklahoma for from people that want to want to hunt them. And so, uh, we certainly don't want 'em in our state. So, in fact, uh, in talking to some of the folks with DWR, I've talked to, those folks in those states have indicated that they should have, when they first came into their states, should have done what we're doing because they're having a real problem in Texas and Oklahoma with them. So, so that's, uh, one of the things we're doing. Um, uh, also we're establishing a, a regulatory framework for aerial coyote hunting and, uh, transferring the predator control fee setting authority, uh, to the Agricultural and Wildlife Damage Prevention Board. So, uh, this also has, uh, in it, uh, a pro on probable cause. Seizure peace officers may see even impound vehicles if they're, if they're hunting feral swine. And these vehicles, uh, would be offered for sale of public sale through the Sheriff's department, which would, uh, uh, go into helping, uh, depredation control. Uh, the aerial hunting authorizes the department to issue aerial hunting permits to landowners and licenses to pilots for taking coyotes from an aircraft, uh, to prevent damage to agriculture, production and livestock. Uh, the boundaries are, uh, it's limited to private lands owned or managed by the permitee or specific state and federal grazing allotments where they have active grazing rights. So they just can't go anywhere they want, as if, uh, the permitee has some active grazing rights in an area, then they can, uh, they can get some aerial, uh, help in there. It requires the permitees and licensees to assume the liabilities for any actions, injuries, or damage arising from aerial hunting. Uh, uh, also, uh, this gives the, uh, uh, animal damage control board the fee setting authority, uh, to set fees when it comes to sheep, goats, cattle, and turkeys. And one thing to mention, uh, folks, this is probably the only, some of the only fees left, uh, that has to do with agriculture, uh, and livestock that are not already in the fee schedule in our natural resources, uh, appropriation subcommittee. Uh, so this is just lining up fees with everything else. Uh, we, those of us that, and some of us in here are on that, uh, subcommittee, will be able to have eyes on those fees as this damage control board decides. Maybe the fee ought change. As you know, those fees are highlighted, any changes up or down or highlighted in that list. And it'll be important that we keep our eyes on those changes, which we do every year. We look at those. Uh, so with that, I'm gonna turn a little time to Mr. Troy with you daft, to hit on any of the things I've missed or add to welcome, Mr. For just state your name and who you're with.

Thanks. I'm, uh, Troy Forest. I'm one of the Deputy commissioners at the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. First of all, I want to, to thank the, the committee and thank, uh, Representative Shipp for all of his work that he's done with this and for all the phone calls he's taken late at night on this and everything else. You know, we, we have a problem with feral pigs. Uh, we've, we've removed about 30 of them this year. Uh, did DNA testing on 'em, and those pigs are coming outta the panhandle of Oklahoma and the Panhandle of Texas. So they didn't walk. They came in a trailer. People are are planning them. We found bait stations. They, they're intentionally hunting in them and trying to bring them in and, and we know the thousands and millions of dollars of damage that they can do. And so this is preventative medicine. I think you'll hear from the Division of Wildlife Resource where that's talked to other states, like the good representative mentioned that this is the way to stop the problem. You don't want hunters hunting them because that creates an incentive for more of them to be there and creates an opportunity to hunt. We don't want that in any way, shape, or form. And so this, this removes that. The other thing, the fees, you know, this is one of the, we have hundreds of fees at the Department of Agriculture. This is the only one that we know of that's still in statute To put it on the fee schedule just makes administrative sense to us, has to go through a board. We, the department can't arbitrarily raise these fees. Uh, it goes through a publicly noticed board, the Animal Damage Control Board that no has the public notice their meetings. There's chance for public comment there. That's a board member. That board is made up of members of the cattlemen, the wool growers, the Sportsman's community, the Division of Wildlife Resources. They would, in aggregate, have to decide to raise a fee. And then even if they proposed it, it ha it goes on the fee schedule. And the legislature has to ratify that decision for it to go either up or down. Uh, the legislature has to weigh in and allow that to happen. The aerial stuff, uh, that's just cleaning up. Uh, you know, kind of finishing up our divorce from Wildlife Services and the feds. They used to issue a lot of those permits to hunt where they're not involved anymore. We needed the explicit authority to do that. This cleans that up and gives us that so that we can allow our private land owners to hire, uh, predator work to be done from the airplane. So we really appreciate it and we're happy to entertain. Any questions?

Thank you Chair. Um, mainly a curiosity when it lists out the members of the family that fall within feral swine, it seems pretty specific. Mm-hmm. Um, is, is there any chance that the specificity would allow other types of swine to be hunted that, that fall outside of these categories? Uh, we tried to identify the ones that are hunted and have been hunted anywhere. Okay. While still maintaining people's ability to have domestic swine, because we raise pigs for food.

Yeah. And, and, and that's where you, you have to be careful, is any of the food pigs we wanted to make sure weren't included. Anything that has the Russian boars and the things that have been hunted. We wanted to try to call those out. So that's why the specificity.

Did you say that these came from Oklahoma, The panhandle of Oklahoma and the panhandle of Texas, uh,

that's Wildlife Services does genetic testing on all pigs. And they have all of the, uh, the, the feral pigs. They have them typed genotyped, these pigs that we're killing in southern Utah came from the Panhandle of Texas and the panhandle of Oklahoma.

Thanks. Uh, Mr. Chair, uh, this has al always been interested. A number of years ago we had another, uh, bill that was, uh, kind of similar. But anyway, what my, uh, question is, do we have any idea what kind of numbers there are that have been introduced so far? Or, um, is it a pretty small number so far? Uh,

Pre pretty small numbers. You know, we, we've killed about 30 this year. We think we've got the lion's share and we killed five removed, I should say probably not killed. We removed five a couple of weeks ago. They were all female pigs and didn't have any piglets with us, which would tend for us to think that there's not a bore around. Otherwise we, I mean, they can, pigs can really pump out babies, you know, they can, uh, can cycle every couple of months and have a litter. And where the, those that we removed recently were all females and didn't have any piglets with them. We think that's a good sign. We think that we're, we're on the edge of it, but, but if somebody's bringing 'em in, yeah. How do you stop it? But this makes it to where it's a, a severe penalty to bring 'em in. You can lose your gun, you can lose your truck, you can lose the trailer. They're transported in. We we're hoping this is a good enough deterrent that it, it just will stop.

Good bill. Vote for it. Um, the State, your name, Wade Garrett, Utah Farm Bureau. Um, this, this is a, a good bill. The department has worked with, uh, farm Bureau and other producer groups get input and it's a good cleanup bill that, uh, just helps key AG producers in business and we appreciate their time. Thank you. Next.

Hi, I'm Justin Shannon with the Division of Wildlife Resources. Um, we appreciate the bill sponsor for running this bill and helping our friends in U daf. Um, the department of, or the Division of Wildlife Resources in UD DAF has a, a very strong partnership and we have for some time, and this is an area that we have a lot of alignment on. Um, as was mentioned earlier, um, I I sit on, uh, several national and western committees that deal with human wildlife conflicts. And when it comes to the feral pig discussion, uh, this is one that I've taken a lot of interest in over the last five or six years. We've had feral pigs show up on the Henry Mountains, certainly the Santa Clara River, um, some of these areas that we're talking about. And there's a lot of alignment that we don't want them here. When I've asked other states that have feral pigs what they would've done different and what advice you would give, uh, the state of Utah on dealing with this issue. They all, um, about five different states independently said, we wish we would've banned hunting of feral pigs from the get-go. And I really struggled to wrap my mind around that because I said, we're, we're a a, a hunting agency, we promote that. And they said, we understand. And the incentive to hunt pigs in these states and in these areas and to release 'em is so great. There's such a monetary value. And people will say, I'm just trying to help solve the problem by hunting 'em. But really they're also exacerbating it by bringing pigs in and, uh, and, and releasing 'em. They said once states like Missouri, once we banned hunting and had the, the state, uh, work with the counties to systematically remove pigs from the counties, that's the first time we got on top of the issue. And so I know it's counterintuitive to look at a bill that says, we're not gonna hunt 'em. And I do think it is the best policy for the state of Utah. Um, really appreciate the sponsor for, uh, working through this diligently with all the stakeholders and, and bringing forth a really good bill.

My name's, my name's Brett Sellman. I'm Vice President of the Utah Wool Growers. I wanted to speak about, uh, the regulatory fee setting for, uh, the Animal Damage Control Board. Um, I'm in favor of, of this bill. I appreciate, uh, this going forward. Um, it's something that we need. Uh, it, it sets everything in place. Uh, we need to be able to lift with the other agencies, as you know, the fish and game and all with, with this bill. And, um, in that meeting, that wool grower meeting, it was unanimous that we, with a, there was wool growers across the state represented there, and it was unanimous that we go this way. And, and I know the Animal Dam Animal Damage Control Board voided unanimous as well. So thank you for your time and I appreciate being here.

Uh, yeah, I'm Michael Larson. I'm the President of the Utah Association and Conservation Districts. And, uh, we have a national association. And when I go to those meetings and talk to the producers and supervisors from the conservation districts in those other states, this feral pig thing is a, it's a big deal. I'd say to them it's the same as wild horses are to Utah and some of the West. So we definitely support this bill. They can do a lot of land and environmental damage, cost producers a lot of money. So we're in full support of the bill and hope you pass it out.

Carl. Good morning. My name's Sierra Nelson. I'm the Executive Director for the Utah Wool Growers Association. I wanted to start by thanking the committee for all that you guys do for wildlife and for agriculture. You guys are amazing and I wanna thank our partners as well with Utah Department of Ag and Food, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and our partners in the Sportsman's community. This bill is great. We really appreciate the work that the sponsors put into it. You know, an ounce of prevention's worth a pound of cure. And we really believe that the things that are in here will help us not only manage our hunting and fishing better, but also manage our agriculture better. And those two go hand in hand. So we really appreciate our ability to be good partners to our partners. And, um, thank you guys for everything. I'd encourage you to pass it out favorably. Thank You so much. Thank you, Sarah.

I'm getting like a little bit of intermittent rain that I'm hoping will turn to snow. I don't know though. I'm gonna go back to bed right after this, so

Listen, I'm nothing if not honest, even though if I'm a half bubble off plum. So thank you guys so much. Thank You. Appreciate it. Have a good day.

Hi, I'm Matt Anderson, uh, director for the Utah Sportsman's Caucus representing hunters, fisher and trappers across the state. Um, Sierra's trying to get some rest. I live about 10 minutes from where I'll go to her house and bang some pots and pans outside to, to wake her up. Um, anyway, just don't wanna belabor the point here. Um, but this is a, a wonderful bill, especially around, uh, feral pigs. You know, they're devastating to wildlife. Um, they really mess up the ecosystem. And southern states are spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year to manage, um, feral pigs. And as my e-comm professor at Utah State drilled into me, incentives matter. And if it's illegal and there's no incentive to bring 'em in to hunt, then we won't have the problem. So this is a great bill. We support it. Thanks so much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you Mr. Chair. I make a motion that we adopt the first substitute amendment One Amendment one with amendment one With amendment one. Oh, no, just I thought I had to do The sub first. Just amendment. It's already been subbed. Oh, It's already subbed. Oh. So adopt amendment one.

Would you like to speak to it? I'll waive. Okay.

Yeah, it's just clarifying take and what it means. It's pretty, pretty simple. Just some clarification. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

I'll, uh, make the motion that we pass out favorably. Uh, first sub HB 3 26 has amended.

Would you like to speak to it? No, I'll waive again.

I'll just say Oink coin.

Yes, I, I wanted to speak on the, uh, on the amendment and I would appreciate it if the, the good sponsor could explain, uh, uh, part of the definition we've changed it to says, I'm not sure how to, how to pronounce the word sane or sign. I'm not sure I know. Uh, fishing that means to net, are we still talking about netting them?

Yeah, We left it that way just to make it match with what take means in wildlife code. So we, we, we don't plan on fishing nets for the pigs, but we just made the definition of take match in both places in code so that there's not a conflict in code. That was something the division asked us to do. And we says if we can live with that, we understand we're not gonna be fishing or staining for, for pigs. But that's why,

Did answer my question, I'm, I'm glad that we had the, the department here. I'm not sure the sponsor was, uh, gonna do that for me.

Oh, I Could have done it representative Outta hand here.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee. This is, uh, uh, been a bill and actually the good chair here has helped me work on this a little bit with some stakeholders and producers. And the first thing I wanted to talk about on this is, uh, we are adding feral swines to the predator list. Uh, as many of you may not be aware, but in, in southern Utah, specifically Washington County, uh, there's been somebody hauling in Ferreal swine from, uh, the Midwest. Uh, I understand probably Texas and Oklahoma. And they are a problem. Uh, and, and so what we're doing is we're putting 'em on the predator list. We're gonna ask our trappers to, to remove them. Uh, and also it's, uh, we're making it illegal to hunt them. And so many people may wonder, well, you know, you're, we are a hunting state. Why are you not allowing 'em to hunt? Well, the reason for that is we don't want people wanting to hunt 'em. And so they wanna bring him into the state. And so, uh, and maybe, uh, our good, uh, uh, uh, gentleman from DWR, uh, Justin can respond a little bit to that or even Troy when we get to that point. But so what it does, it, uh, it's a third degree felony. Uh, if, uh, if they're, uh, hunting these and, uh, uh, they can get their vehicle seized just like any other type of hunting problem and, uh, and so forth. Uh, aerial hunting, uh, is, uh, it authorizes the department to do aerial hunting for coyotes. Uh, so they can take them from aircraft, uh, on private or public land. And, uh, and also when it comes to, uh, part of this has to do with, uh, uh, a fee structure, uh, sheep and cattle, uh, uh, producers pay a, pay a fee, uh, for, to help with predator control. Uh, right now that's in statute. And so what this bill do is, is moving that fee out of statute to the fee schedule that we always approve in our, uh, appropriation subcommittee and natural resources, which is where all the other fees reside. And it just makes sense. And, you know, we'll still have eyes on it in the legislature because we have to approve that fee schedule. And there's also public meetings and so forth to deal with that. And so, uh, I'm gonna turn some time over to, uh, Troy Herd, introduce himself and fill in the gaps that I may have missed.

Yes. Thank you. I'm, uh, Troy Forrest with a deputy commissioner with the Utah Department of Medical, agriculture and Food. And first of all, I just want to thank the sponsor and thank the chair for, for weighing in and helping us on this bill. I spent a lot of time and, and effort and heard a lot from their constituency. And we, we think we landed in a good place. Uh, feral swine are an issue. We have DNA testing that shows these swine came in from Oklahoma and Texas. They're, they're not walking here. They're not the ones that are in the Virgin River walking up the Virgin River. These were transported in trailers and, and people are, are setting up bait stations. We've, we've caught on camera, these bait stations. They're trying to bring 'em in so they can hunt 'em. And, and we don't want hunting and, and listening to other stations, I think Justin will, will share with you the experiences other states have had trying to control 'em using hunters. It's been a disaster. They've, they've had a worse problem now than what they started with. So, so we want to take care of that. We also know from the, those that we took earlier this year, our, our people took about 30 of these pigs. They have suedo rabies, which is, uh, very transmissible to dogs, to pets, to those types of things. We don't want that established. So there's disease, disease issues besides that. We have to take care of, uh, the fee schedule. You know, we have hundreds of fees in the Department of Ag. They all go through a board at the Department of Ag and then go on the legislative calendar. If there's any changes made, you guys all review 'em in the appropriations committee, we think that's appropriate to, to move it to that system. This is the only one that we know of in the department that was still in statute. So this just cleans that up. Uh, the aerial hunting thing, as you well know, and, and you guys supported, we divorced from Wildlife Services, uh, they ran the aerial program. We now have that responsibility. This clarifies that we issue the permits as the state of Utah for the private vendors that fly over and do coyote control on their own dime on their own land or on their permits. Uh, this gives us the authority and the ability to write those licenses and to remove those licenses if needed. If they're outta compliance, it also makes them assume the liability for flying. So with that, if there's any questions, I'm happy to entertain 'em, but if not, thank you.

Uh, I thank you. I'd just like to say that type Van Abil that, uh, several years ago about, uh, equine on, on swine and, and, uh, they was having some out on Fremont Island. There was some like Russian hogs or something they'd got from Georgia or somewhere, Arkansas or something like that. Yeah. And they brought 'em in there. And now of course, they'd be able to walk off from there. Back then there was enough water. They was stranded on the island. But yeah, uh, we, we had some, uh, people hunting, but like you say, feral hogs are 6 million feral hogs in Texas. And if you go down there, they'll, and they turn nocturnal where you don't, you don't, you don't really get to shoot 'em. They come out at night only. That's right. And, uh, Idaho's got a real problem with feral hogs up there. And, but there was, it's quite a, it is devastating to farmers. They planted, they fall wheat and the wife's, It's A rot. It is gone. I mean, they, they go through and look like they plowed it arm, uh, field up when they go through there. But anyway, uh, I, I'm glad you're getting to this. Uh, I mean, I thought it was already taken care of that we, they, we banned, uh, having hogs as we did have some places out in Vernal and down in Emery County, both that was turning pigs loose, and then they'd gotten hunting 'em and they were getting loose, and then it was, you know, getting, anyway, so thanks. Thanks. I thank you. I realize we're still on issue on this, but thanks. Yeah.

Thanks. Okay, so I got a couple of questions. First of all, in the fee schedule, moving it over, um, do you anticipate or see currently that we're underfunding and we need to raise the fee?

Well, the, if I may Yes, please. Go ahead. The W the wool growers came to us and asked us to look at raising the fee. Initially, we were just gonna do it in statute until we got looking and thinking, well, that ought to be on the fee schedule. It goes through the Animal Damage Control committee. And, and they review it. Uh, and the wool growers proposed to the department that we raise it by 50 cents. That was the genesis of the whole start of this is the, the Wool Growers Committee went, and then we took that to the Animal Damage Control Board and they felt the same way. But we couldn't do it without going into statute. This changes that so that we can, through the board and through our fee schedule, just like any other fee in the department that we have. Okay. So this just helped us identify an issue. I think the fee's been the same for about 15 years, from what I understand from the wool grower's presidency. So they on their own, came to us and asked us unanimously through their board to raise this. That's what was, was part of the genesis for that part of this bill.

Okay. Um, I just wanted to be, make kind of that clarity, hope, hopefully it's in collaboration with the industries before we do decide to raise.

Um, we would never raise it. I know, I know. Every time, I know, every time I pay it on my, on my brand inspection, I have to scratch my head.

So anyway, um, the next question is how do we deal? I, I don't want feral hogs, let me just make that clear. But how do we distinguish between the person, the neighbor, the neighboring, whatever, and a feral hog escapes and they get it on their property and they're shooting, they want that hog gone, but it's not gonna be a value much to call the department, the division, or somebody else to come in and remove that hog. Is that person now subject? How do we, how do we delineate between the people that are bringing hunting in and somebody who's wanting to help us control the problem? And if I may go ahead.

You know, a domestic pig, we tried to delineate the difference. A pig that you would normally use in your operation is not defined as one of these feral swines

No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a feral swine that escapes, escapes where, uh, from the people that brought it in in a horse trailer, calls under the fence, comes on the neighbor's property, and the neighbor doesn't want it there and shoots the pig. And now they're subject to fines and felonies.

If I, if I may, Mr. Chair, I can answer that. Yeah. If, if it, if, if there's a feral pig on private property that the owner feels like it's there, they can eliminate it.

Okay. We're We're That's in the bill. Oh, it's in the bill. Yes. Can you point me to that part? 'cause I'm not sure I saw that part. Okay. I'll find it. Okay. Go ke go ahead. That, that's, that's my question. I just need that answered. Okay. We'll, we'll work on that.

Okay. So you may kill or destroy it. Oh, so it's the threat of harm to property. Okay. Yes. So, So talks about if he search Mm-hmm. Okay. So if he gets on your property and you're thinking, I don't want that, that thing, that could thing could Okay. Cause some damage. Okay. Perfect. Answer your Question. Thanks. Got my question.

Forests, what is the penalty now for those who are illegally bringing those swine in?

I'll have to defer to law enforcement. I don't know off the top of my head

Because that, I would, I, I mean, I wonder if that needs to be in the bill because we're trying to eliminate this issue now instead of, uh, we don't wanna encourage it by any means. Um, no, I Think that's why it says he doesn't know either. So I don't know That, uh, might be something topic We can find out for You For sure. Let's, let's look at that. Okay. Um, further, there we go.

Thank you. I I am looking, I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the answer. 'cause I had the same concern that Senator Sandall had. If certainly if, if, if I have a feral swine come on my property and I don't feel threatened or, let's see. I don't think there's immediate threat of death to me or body of injury or threat or harm, but I still don't want it on my property. I shoot it. I'm, I'm committed a third degree felony according to this.

If I may, I think the threat or harm to your private land or personal property is plenty of reason to dispose of that. So the presence of it there is, is, that's what you're saying?

Yeah, just, just the fact that it's there. I think It's a pig and it can, has the potential to destroy period. I mean, if, if I had one in my, uh, wheat field or my alfalfa field, that is reason enough for me to want it gone.

That because It hasn't, I I would suggest that that's not what the bill, I, I, you know, I'm not suggesting that we're intending this, but there is an interpretation that could be based on the language of 3 0 3 where we have, if you hunt, trap, capture, kill, or attempt to hunt, trap capture, kill, you've committed the felony.

And I, I don't, I don't think we're, I think we might need to have a little more flexibility in that three 19 to three 20 to allow an unintended felony of someone that's not the, the, the, the not acting in the way that we're trying to address here, bringing them in and hunting for sport and stuff. But if they're here, that's, we're gonna have them probably show up where we, we don't want.

Uh, Justin Shannon, deputy Director for the Utah Division Wildlife Resources. Um, we really appreciate the sponsor bringing this bill forward and working with the Division of Wildlife in the Department of Ag. And I wanna speak to the hunting side of it for a minute. Um, I, I used to chair a committee called the Human Wildlife Conflicts Committee, and this was for the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. And I sat on a national committee as well, and I sat in a lot of meetings where states would talk about feral swine and the challenges that they were facing. Um, when I asked them, we, we, we started seeing feral swine show up in places, um, uh, near the Henry Mountains and a couple other isolated parts that were already mentioned, Fremont Island. And so my response to them was, my question was, could you help a new state that's learning how to deal with this? If we are starting to get feral swine states, like Missouri and other states that have had a history of dealing with feral swine, what advice would you give to us? And five states independent of one another, all said we would ban hunting a feral swine right from the get go. The incentives are too great for, uh, people to, to bring these things in from outta state, release 'em the damage they would do on these habitats for the private lands and our public lands is really detrimental. And they said I would ban hunting. And that was really hard for me to wrap my mind around as someone who represents an agency that is very pro hunting to not hunt these pigs. And really, when they banned hunting in those states, and they started using lethal removal through, uh, cooperations of, of government agencies and trappers like, like UD DAF has, or as the bill says, uh, the agents that we could do, we could contract this out if we had problems on private lands, we could make, we could authorize them to be agents of the division wildlife or DE department or, uh, UD DAF to solve these problems. Once they did that, their feral swine populations gotten check and they made great progress. And so, I know it's counterintuitive to support a bill that bans the hunting of an animal, but I think that the challenges that they pose in our great straight our, our great state are too big if, if we don't get, be proactive and think through this. So I wanna thank the sponsor for his proactive nature, so thank you.

Mr. She'll be much quicker than that. Matt Anderson, Utah Sportsman's Caucus. Um, I had an economics professor at Utah State University say, incentives matter and if there's not incentive for people bringing pigs to hunt, because it's legal, it's gonna take care of the issue. We fully support this bill and I urge you to, uh, pass it through. Thank you.

Uh, yeah. I'm Michael Larson. I'm the president of the Utah Association of Conservation Districts. And by de definition, the conservation districts in the state are responsible for any natural resource concern within their district. And we've had calls from producers a lot on, on both deprivation. And in the southern end of the state, there's a really big concern about feral Juab, uh, hogs. And so I do share some concern about some of the language. But, uh, anyway, UACD is in complete, uh, support of this bill and would e urge you to pass it out unanimously.

Hi, Wade Garrett, Utah Farm Bureau. Thanks for letting me present online today. I have a family thing that I wanted to get home to, so thank you so much. Um, again, I'll be brief. Uh, Utah Farm Bureau is grateful for the work with the sponsor and, uh, senate sponsor have done on this bill. They put a lot of extra time into it, um, that has not gone unnoticed by us. And we do support it with Utah Farm Bureau and urge you to vote this other committee. Thank you.

Bock d and r law enforcement. Just wanted to clarify a question that was asked earlier about, uh, if there's a current violation for the releasing of feral swine in code, we were able to find it's in, uh, agricultural code, not wildlife code, but it says a person is guilty of a third degree felony if the person releases a swine on public or private property for hunting purposes or for or feral swine on public or private property for any pur purpose. So it's, uh, currently a third degree felony now.

Well, I can do a better job now that I'm sitting at the airport. My name's Sierra Nelson. I'm the Executive Director of the Utah Wool Growers Association. Yes, I have switched hats and I really wanna speak favorably about this bill. There's so many good components to it that are helpful to both wildlife and to agriculture, and we really support it. We are pleased to see the changes with the head assessment and the fee schedule. That's something that was industry led unanimously voted on in both the Wool Growers Board meeting and the Ag Wildlife Damage Prevention Board. Um, as a sportsman, I switch hats and tell you how much we support this bill from that aspect, because AG doesn't wanna deal with feral swine sportsman don't wanna deal with Ferrell swine. We do not want them in the state. So we would encourage you to pass this bill out favorably, and I appreciate your time.

Now. Can you hear me?

Yes. Okay. Brett Sellman here. Uh, I hope you can still hear me. We appreciate the sponsor in this bill, and we would ask you to pass favorably this bill. I'm, uh, from the Utah Oil Growers as well as Sierra. And I'll just mirror what, what she already said. Thank you.

Senator Hinkins. I would make a motion. We pass, uh, pass this bill out favorably. Okay.

I'll waive Mr. Chair. I'll waive. Waive, I'll place the motion.

You Mr. Chair Committee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker Pro Tem. Uh, this bill is, uh, a really important bill. So it relates to our agriculture community. Uh, it makes it against the law to hunt feral swine in the state of Utah. Uh, we don't want feral swine in our state. Uh, there's some states, uh, Oklahoma and Texas where we, where these swine came from, that wishes that they would not have allowed hunting in their states. And they have a significant problem with feral swine. They're dangerous. They tear up the landscape. And, uh, so many people think that here we have, uh, we love hunting and things in Utah, but we're, we're going to prevent the hunting of feral swine. And the reason is, is we don't want any, any, any incentives for people to bring these swine in. Uh, uh, uh, basically these have been coming in. People have been hauling them in, uh, for the reason Mr. Speaker Prote. They want to be able to hunt them. And, uh, so they're hauling them in here. And it could, and, and these, these swine can reproduce very quickly. And so this bill, uh, is going to, uh, put in the code that this is also one of the, uh, the animals that is considered, uh, a nuisance and is a predator. And so, uh, we will eliminate them. Also, uh, the bill has a change on aerial hunting. Uh, we allow aerial hunting permits to landowners and, and we have licenses for pilots to go out where for the taking of coyotes, which is not a protected wildlife, to prevent damage to our livestock. Our, especially our sheep producers and cattle, but primarily sheep, uh, have a lot of damage from coyotes. And so this allows, uh, aerial hunting and it doesn't. And it also indicates that, uh, the, the, when they permitted and licensed, uh, they have to have their own liability for any actions or injuries. Uh, also, uh, we have fees, uh, for our livestock to, uh, create money in the account, uh, to, to pay for, uh, depredation. Uh, and that's on cattle and sheep primarily. Uh, we're removing those fees. Uh, Mr. Speaker pulled him out of statute into the fee schedule of the subcommittee of Natural Resources and Agriculture and Environment. Uh, there also, uh, it prohibits individuals from holding a raccoon or coyote in captivity, except as specifically provided by board rules. And, uh, and that Mr. Speaker Pro tem, I'm open to any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker Pro Tem. Hey, uh, will the sponsor yield to a question? Will The sponsor yield? Yes, go ahead. So, uh, on the aerial, uh, opportunity for aerial hunting, that is the way I read it. And is that only open, uh, to private property?

No, it's, uh, open, private and public property.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you Representative.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker pro tem. Um, will the sponsor yield to, will the sponsor yield please?

Ahead. Thank you, Mr. Speaker Pro tem. I just want to know, is there a difference between actively going after coyotes or, I mean, just doing it because they are a nuisance. I mean, like, are we able to tell a difference between just killing them because we wanna kill 'em or killing them because they um, because they are a nuisance?

Uh, Mr. Speaker Pro Tam, uh, coyote coyotes, uh, are a detriment to our livestock, uh, as well as our wildlife. Uh, so, uh, they are con we have state trappers and their job is to eliminate predators, uh, to protect, uh, our livestock primarily because it's a really, it is critical to our economy in the state, uh, and for our food. Uh, and also, uh, for our wildlife, uh, uh, they, they tend to, uh, take a lot of deer, especially when they're dropping their fawns in the spring or the early summer. And so it's important to, to eliminate coyotes. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Speaker ProAm.