2024 Regular Session - Day 51 - HB 586, Rep. David Hale

thank you Mr Speaker uh appreciate the opportunity today to present to this body today House Bill 586 uh piece of legislation that was brought Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife uh Mr Speaker could you please ask the clerk to report house committee substitute one please clerk please report house committee substitute one to House Bill 586 gent from meny all that house committee substitute one done uh sir and members of this body was just changed a uh grammatical error of a word that was there so I move for the adoption of U house committee substitute one motion is for the adoption of house committee substitute one is there any discussion of the committee substitute seeing none those in favor signify of voting I those oppos nay house committee substitute one is adopted gentleman from mene thank you sir and uh again I appreciate the opportunity today to present to you uh House Bill 586 is is actually somewhat of a lengthy Bill uh about 50 pages but it's uh it's really very simple there's a few changes that uh the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife wanted to implement um in some in some language and a a few procedures that they wanted to have changed and I'll just quickly go over those change number one was a term that their officers currently are uh referred to as conservation officers years ago you can many many years ago these officers were called game wardens and I think that was probably more of a familiar term with most people uh Outdoorsman Sportsmen but uh there had been a change and and they they had referred to them as conservation officers uh for several years but they have requested to actually remove that language and go back to referring to their officers as game wardens and the reason being for that was I think a lot of people saw that word conservation there and they didn't know really what these actual people actually did whether they were with their conservation districts or what their roles was so that that's a one of the very simple changes there to just um re um put back in the uh in language to refer to their officers as game wardens uh the second change that they requested uh re revolved around their water Patrol officers and I know if you've been on the lakes and here in Kentucky you have seen these these officers which are actually Fish and Wildlife officers but over the course of years they have been some people thought they were State Police uh actually for a while they were listed even under that under that U uh that topic but uh it wanted they wanted to just bring this back and regulate those officers back under their under Fish and Wildlife officers so uh just to make sure that everybody knew that they were water enforcement Patrol officers uh by the under the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife the third the third the third change was and I will be brief with this was was describing what a dependent child was as far as living on the property being able to have access to fishing and hunting on that on that property of the uh land owner and at this time Mr Speaker I would like to yield to the lady from Grant please for a friendly Fuller Amendment the next change in in the language of this bill was Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife actually has several shooting ranges around the state from east to west and north to south that they actually uh they maintain and those shooting ranges are actually theirs and in in this language of this bill they wanted to have it stated that if an individual was a valid license holder fishing license hunting license that an individ indvidual that that had a valid Kentucky Sportsman's license would be able to use those shooting ranges with no charge but if a person did not possess a hunting or fishing license an individual that still wanted to use those ranges would have to to purchase a permit to use those and uh and and I think that's certainly fair and and the cost they were talking about was rather minimal uh but the fifth and the six change is is one that's just a little more um I won't say it's more difficult but it might be just a little hard for it to for maybe some to understand and but I'll do the best I can here in Kentucky as as most of you probably know we have a lot of guide Services there are fishing guides hunting guides that you can pay a price to or a fee to and they will take you to a certain Lake they will take you to a certain area and a you uh in in a hunting area or a fishing area there are also uh a group of individual there's there's called um those that give really more than just the more than just the the hunting service or the fishing service and they are actually called Outfitters and what an Outfitter does is it would probably be a more more uh costly experience where they might take you to a place and set you up with accommodations and provide you a lot of other different uh things that you could use in that uh in that tour that you were on but one of the things that we have discovered and and I will say this up front ladies and gentlemen 95% of the people that do this they are above board they do it right they do it correct but there are some folks that are not doing it correct ir and they've taken advantage of the system and many of those are not registering with the secretary of state and they're just offering a service and and there's some questionable things that some of these individuals have done and all this does is this this gives the Department of Fish and Wildlife for these individuals the guide Services the U the other the other services the uh the Outfitter services that they are to be regulated uh by the Kentucky Department of Fish and my life so that's the Gest of the bill Mr Speaker and uh if there are any questions I'll be glad to answer them if I possibly can but if not I would Al I would move for passage of House Bill 586 as amended by the committee substitute and also house Flor Amendment one