114 wildlife rule changes proposed

Title 800 and our hunting/fishing guides are set for a good housecleaning

December is bureaucracy season in Oklahoma and it’s time to take an annual look at the proposed changes to Title 800 hunting and fishing rules.

This year, with more than 100 proposed changes, it’s important that people not be dissuaded from commenting when they click into the online form and see more than 100 questions to sort through.

Hint: you need only comment on the ones that matter to you so just click on through until you get to the ones you care about.

What is important to note this year is this represents is a direct influence from Gov. Kevin Stitt’s early call for smaller bureaucracy and fewer regulations and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s response. The department took a hard look at Title 800—the section of state law that lays out department operations and governs what you and I are allowed to do while afield.

Paddlefish Research Biologist Jason Schooley was one of many in the department who served on committees dedicated to eyeing duplicative, ineffective, confusing, irrelevant, or outdated, rules throughout Title 800 this past year. He said committee members literally were divided up and assigned a number of pages of the 300-some page Title 800 to review.

“That was the cool thing, I was assigned to review rules I really don’t have purview over, so I wasn’t necessarily looking at paddlefish and fisheries. So we were able to remove biases and look at the rules like you were a constituent or any person trying to follow the rules with a ‘does this make sense’ approach,” he said.

Committee members traded notes and consulted with the experts and the result, so far, is voluminous and, speaking as an editor, I’m impressed so far.

Changes numbering hundreds more are still in the works, Schooley said. This is a large undertaking and will continue into next year, along with a hard look at the hunting and fishing regulation guide books.

By way of illustration, here is one change that immediately popped out at me:

Title 800:10-1-5. Bag limits on fish [REVOKED].

That line is followed by paragraph after paragraph of copy with lines through it. Yep, almost the entire sections of Title 800 that set daily bag and size limits on fish statewide is stricken. Actual in-the-field impacts are few, but the text is so much easier to understand.

For example the regulations regarding largemouth and smallmouth bass size limits are listed in outline form, a, b, c, d, for areas of no harvest, no size limit, or slot limits, instead of a rambling blob of mixed size and bag limit restrictions.

It’s proposed to read like this, in part:

2. Largemouth bass and smallmouth bass statewide minimum size limit is fourteen (14) inches and bag limit is six (6) in aggregate, except:

a. Waters where harvest of largemouth bass is prohibited include: Doc Hollis Lake.

b. Waters with no size or bag limits on largemouth bass and smallmouth bass include: Lake Murray and all waters in the Wichita National Wildlife Refuge.

As opposed to the current version:

(1) Six (6) largemouth or smallmouth bass or six in aggregate, except in "Close To Home" fishing water and Doc Hollis Lake where all largemouth bass caught must be returned to the water unharmed immediately after being taken (no harvest allowed), at Texoma Reservoir where the limit is five (5), largemouth, smallmouth or spotted bass or five in aggregate, at Lake Konawa, McGee Creek Lake, Dripping Springs Lake and Crowder Lake (Washita County) where the limit is six (6) of which only one (1) may be twenty-two (22) inches or longer and rivers and streams including ...

… And on it goes for another 60 or 70 words in one big lump.

Of course any detailed editing will uncover old, outdated or odd language that has lingered in law books for who knows how long, so the public comment forms offer such entertaining, yet mundane, changes such this one: “Title 800:25-7-64. General provisions for furbearers. Change the term Ranger to Warden.”

I expect some wiseacres out there might comment to the Wildlife Commission it should be changed to “possum cop,” “squirrel sheriff,” “carp cop,” “fish fuzz” or some other silliness, but you won’t catch me taking advantage of such an opportunity to use inappropriate terms for our wildlife law enforcement officers. They do an important and high-risk job and these are serious matters.

Honest. I did not do that in my comments, wasn’t even tempted—thought never crossed my mind.

People will also be asked to address such proposals as “Change Personnel Coordinator to Human Resource Administrator” and “Strike the word ‘tape’ from “tape recorded.”

Some of these obviously needed updates are illustrative, like, “800:25-1-5. Trapping on Lake Thunderbird State Park: Revoke section. This section is out of date and no longer necessary. Trapping has not been allowed on park property in over 15 years.”

I think my comment on that was, “Sounds like it’s about time.”

Housekeeping is indeed easy to put off or view as unimportant but it’s not—just ask my wife about the state of my office and our garage during hunting seasons.

It’s good to see the Wildlife Department taking the time to update, clarify and simplify Title 800. They are helping to keep our house in order, and it is effort that should ultimately simplify the terms in Title 800 and, in turn, the hunting and fishing rules we all must understand and follow when afield, and those are serious and important matters.

---

Key items up for comment

Here are the subjects most people will find of interest for public comment this month.

For Close To Home Fishing waters, allow black bass harvest and set new three-fish daily aggregate limit.

• Set new aggregate three-fish bag limit for trout statewide and three-fish aggregate limit for Close to Home fisheries.

• Clarify restriction on cleaning fish while actively fishing.

• Add restriction on dumping fish carcasses to move them farther from docks, boat ramps and wadeable waters.

• Clarify the taking of fish species by bow and arrow, gig, spear and speargun and disposal of remains.

• Change fish stringer labeling requirement at tailwaters and trout fishing areas from name and address to customer identification number.

• Allow snagging of paddlefish below Zink Dam on the Arkansas River except for a period from April 15-May 15.

• Various changes to hunting season dates, open hours, closed seasons and bag limits on many wildlife management areas.

• Add archery as a legal method of take to fill Damage Control Assistance Program permits.

• Clarify when and where hunter orange is required to be worn, and remove hunter orange requirements for dove hunters.

• Allow nonresidents to complete hunter education certification through the ODWC online course.

An explanation of the public comment process, the Agenda Pdf summary of changes, links to the Title 800 specifics and a link to the online comment form are located at wildlifedepartment.com or by clicking on the illustration below.