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Senate advances depredation bills, removes $2,000 ceiling and ties payments to hunting access
Summary
Senators passed substitute language advancing two linked bills to compensate private rangeland owners for big-game damage, removing a $2,000 payment ceiling and adding fences and irrigation equipment as compensable losses. Debate focused on how payment prorating, a 72‑hour damage-notice rule and requirements to permit 'reasonable hunting' would be applied.
Senators advanced substitute legislation intended to speed payments to private landowners whose forage, fences or irrigation equipment are damaged by elk and deer, while creating tools intended to encourage cooperative wildlife management.
Sponsor floor remarks said the package removes the existing $2,000 ceiling on damage payments, allows claims that exceed appropriations to be prorated at fiscal‑year end, and explicitly includes fences and irrigation equipment as compensable losses. The sponsor said the change responds to increasing big‑game populations and localized depredation incidents that, in some places, have left producers without usable forage.
Opponents warned the…
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