Subcommittee approves drone-use bill for nuisance species with amendment to remove 'relocate' language; moves bill 5-0

The Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs wildlife subcommittee approved House Bill H3945, a measure that would authorize certain activities involving unmanned aircraft related to nuisance wildlife, after adopting an amendment to remove the word “relocate” from two sections. The subcommittee voted 5-0 on both the amendment and the bill and forwarded the measure to the full committee.

Chief Billy Dukes of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said the department had “no concerns” about the bill from a resource-protection standpoint but asked sponsors to delete the term relocate from sections the bill would affect because “there are already statutes on the books that prohibit relocation.” Dukes told the panel the statute governing feral swine and coyote handling…