By Combs H.B. No. 2133
74R3057 MI-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
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. (a) To enforce the game and fish laws of the state <and to
1-10 conduct scientific investigations and research regarding wild game
1-11 or fish>, an authorized employee of the department may enter on any
1-12 land or water where wild game or fish are known to range or stray.
1-13 No action may be sustained against an employee of the department to
1-14 prevent his entering on land or water when acting in his official
1-15 capacity as described by this subsection.
1-16 (b) No employee of the department may enter on privately
1-17 owned land or water to conduct scientific investigations or
1-18 research regarding wild game or fish or to inventory, survey, or
1-19 otherwise collect data, in written or electronic form, on the fish
1-20 and wildlife resources of the state unless the employee first
1-21 obtains the written consent of the property owner.
1-22 (c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), the department may
1-23 use information obtained solely as a result of an employee's entry
1-24 on privately owned land or water only for the department's purposes
2-1 and may not enter the information or permit the information to be
2-2 entered into a database:
2-3 (1) maintained by the department and available to a
2-4 person other than a department employee;
2-5 (2) maintained by a natural heritage program
2-6 administered by the department; or
2-7 (3) established and maintained by any other person.
2-8 (d) A property owner from whose land or water information
2-9 was obtained may consent in writing to a use of the information
2-10 that would otherwise be prohibited under Subsection (c).
2-11 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
2-12 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-13 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-14 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-15 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-16 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.