BuzzH
Well-known member
This shouldnt come as any surprise...a MT rep. also an outfitter, sponsoring a piece of trash bill like this:
Montana outdoors: Penalties in trespass bill brutally stiff
Mark Henckel
MONTANA OUTDOORS
If you're looking for a real scary piece of legislation in Helena, look no further than Senate Bill 312.
SB 312, sponsored by Sen. Keith Bales, R-Otter, would change the penalties for a second offense in a 10-year period for hunting on private land without permission - in short, hunting trespass.
The new penalties for a second offense would be a minimum fine of $2,000 and it could go up to $5,000, jail for up to a year, or both, and the loss of hunting, fishing and trapping licenses for a minimum of five years.
In a state where public lands are typically not clearly marked, a state which requires no fencing and no posting of private lands and whose private land ownership is increasingly absentee - even absentee by in-state landowners who might not live in the same county the land is located - those penalties are incredibly punitive.
Right now, hunting private land without permission is considered a misdemeanor, which means a person can be fined up to $1,000 and thrown in jail for up to six months and lose their hunting, fishing and trapping licenses.
A fine of $1,000? Six months in jail? A judge's discretion on how long to take licenses away? To me, that means if the judge really wants to throw the book at a trespasser, they already have some pretty stiff and effective tools at their disposal.
How stiff would SB 312's new penalties be in comparison to other violations of hunting laws? Let's take a look at a similar violation for guides and outfitters.
Bales, a Powder River County outfitter, should know that the Montana Board of Outfitters typically levels fines of $150 to $300 and hands out a year of probation for outfitters and guides who operate outside their approved areas.
It could be argued that this, too, is simply hunting without permission. But nobody loses their hunting license, their guide license or their outfitter license over it that I'm aware of. No outfitter or guide has been fined $1,000 by the board for that violation alone, much less $5,000. And nobody does jail time.
Is the board soft on its own constituents while Sen. Bales is trying to get tough on others? That's a matter of opinion.
But this Board of Outfitters is the same outfit that, in session last year, voted not to list the reasons for fines, probation and other disciplinary actions against guides or outfitters on its Web site.
The board's rationale was that people could call the office if they really wanted to know about the violations that a guide or outfitter might have committed. And besides, listing those bad things about a violating outfitter might hurt the outfitter's business.
So it could be argued that if you get fined $300 by the board for a $2,000-per-trip or $3,000-per-trip client you take to an illegal place to get a nice buck, you're still making out pretty darn well.
No hearing date has been set for SB 312. And no legislation has been introduced in this session to require better posting to make it easier for hunters, hikers and fishermen to determine land ownership.
Montana outdoors: Penalties in trespass bill brutally stiff
Mark Henckel
MONTANA OUTDOORS
If you're looking for a real scary piece of legislation in Helena, look no further than Senate Bill 312.
SB 312, sponsored by Sen. Keith Bales, R-Otter, would change the penalties for a second offense in a 10-year period for hunting on private land without permission - in short, hunting trespass.
The new penalties for a second offense would be a minimum fine of $2,000 and it could go up to $5,000, jail for up to a year, or both, and the loss of hunting, fishing and trapping licenses for a minimum of five years.
In a state where public lands are typically not clearly marked, a state which requires no fencing and no posting of private lands and whose private land ownership is increasingly absentee - even absentee by in-state landowners who might not live in the same county the land is located - those penalties are incredibly punitive.
Right now, hunting private land without permission is considered a misdemeanor, which means a person can be fined up to $1,000 and thrown in jail for up to six months and lose their hunting, fishing and trapping licenses.
A fine of $1,000? Six months in jail? A judge's discretion on how long to take licenses away? To me, that means if the judge really wants to throw the book at a trespasser, they already have some pretty stiff and effective tools at their disposal.
How stiff would SB 312's new penalties be in comparison to other violations of hunting laws? Let's take a look at a similar violation for guides and outfitters.
Bales, a Powder River County outfitter, should know that the Montana Board of Outfitters typically levels fines of $150 to $300 and hands out a year of probation for outfitters and guides who operate outside their approved areas.
It could be argued that this, too, is simply hunting without permission. But nobody loses their hunting license, their guide license or their outfitter license over it that I'm aware of. No outfitter or guide has been fined $1,000 by the board for that violation alone, much less $5,000. And nobody does jail time.
Is the board soft on its own constituents while Sen. Bales is trying to get tough on others? That's a matter of opinion.
But this Board of Outfitters is the same outfit that, in session last year, voted not to list the reasons for fines, probation and other disciplinary actions against guides or outfitters on its Web site.
The board's rationale was that people could call the office if they really wanted to know about the violations that a guide or outfitter might have committed. And besides, listing those bad things about a violating outfitter might hurt the outfitter's business.
So it could be argued that if you get fined $300 by the board for a $2,000-per-trip or $3,000-per-trip client you take to an illegal place to get a nice buck, you're still making out pretty darn well.
No hearing date has been set for SB 312. And no legislation has been introduced in this session to require better posting to make it easier for hunters, hikers and fishermen to determine land ownership.
