H.B. No. 2133
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of certain Parks and Wildlife Department
    1-3  employees to enter on private property and to the use of
    1-4  information obtained.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 12.103, Parks and Wildlife Code, is
    1-7  amended to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 12.103.  ENTERING LAND; USE OF INFORMATION OBTAINED BY
    1-9  ENTRY; CIVIL PENALTY.  (a)  To enforce the game and fish laws of
   1-10  the state and to conduct scientific investigations and research
   1-11  regarding wild game or fish, an authorized employee of the
   1-12  department may enter on any land or water where wild game or fish
   1-13  are known to range or stray.  No action may be sustained against an
   1-14  employee of the department to prevent his entering on land or water
   1-15  when acting in his official capacity as described by this
   1-16  subsection.
   1-17        (b)  Except as provided by Subsection (d), the department may
   1-18  use information collected by an employee of the department on
   1-19  privately owned land only for the purposes of scientific
   1-20  investigations and research described in Subsection (a) and only if
   1-21  authorized in writing by the landowner or the landowner's agent.
   1-22  Unless the department first obtains the written consent of the
   1-23  landowner or the landowner's agent, the department may not:
   1-24              (1)  use other incidental information obtained on the
    2-1  land that does not pertain directly to the investigation or
    2-2  research authorized under Subsection (a); or
    2-3              (2)  enter or permit the entry of any information that
    2-4  does not pertain directly to the investigation or research
    2-5  authorized under Subsection (a), into a database:
    2-6                    (A)  maintained by the department and available
    2-7  to a person other than a department employee;
    2-8                    (B)  maintained by a natural heritage program
    2-9  administered by the department; or
   2-10                    (C)  established and maintained by any other
   2-11  person.
   2-12        (c)  Except as provided by Subsection (d), information
   2-13  collected under this section may only be reported or compiled in a
   2-14  manner that prevents the identification of an individual parcel or
   2-15  specific parcels of private property without the written consent of
   2-16  the landowner or the landowner's agent.
   2-17        (d)  The department may collect and enter data as necessary
   2-18  relating to the occurrence or harvest of natural resources in
   2-19  public land or water.  The department may collect and report
   2-20  standardized annual wildlife survey information required by the
   2-21  Pitman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act (16 U.S.C. Section 669 et
   2-22  seq.).
   2-23        (e)  The department is liable to a private landowner for a
   2-24  civil penalty in the amount of $1,000 for a violation of this
   2-25  section involving information collected by an employee of the
   2-26  department on the landowner's property.  A landowner may bring suit
   2-27  to collect the penalty in the county in which the land is located
    3-1  or the county in which the landowner resides.
    3-2        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    3-3        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.