Hunting law changes would exempt La. rice farmers
Published: Friday, November 1, 2013 at 7:26 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, November 1, 2013 at 7:26 p.m.
BATON ROUGE — Answering the concerns of duck hunters in the region, a team of lawmakers, including Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., have filed legislation to address a dispute that has developed involving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the definition of baited fields.
Local hunters often make annual pilgrimages to hunt from Louisiana’s flooded rice fields, but the Fish and Wildlife Service is accusing some farmers of baiting their fields to attract game birds, like duck, which carries with it fines ranging from $15,000 to $100,000 for both hunters and farmers.
Steve Linscombe, the director of LSU’s Rice Research Station in Rayne, said existing laws are open to interpretation.
In south Louisiana, rice is planted in March and harvested in late July and early August. If weather conditions are favorable, farmers can get a second crop of rice from the same plant. That crop is harvested in middle or late October, just before duck season.
Linscombe said sometimes a second crop grows even when a farmer doesn’t intend to harvest.
To prepare a field for hunting, Linscombe said, farmers fold down rice stalks in a process called “rolling,” to create more open water, which is attractive to waterfowl.
If the second crop is on the stalks when the rice is rolled, the field may be inadvertently baited.
“If you look at the federal law,” Linscombe said, “it says you can manipulate a harvested crop.”
It’s unclear, however, when a field with a second crop counts as a harvested crop.
Landrieu has introduced the Farmer and Hunter Protection Act along with Sens. John Boozman, a Republican from Arkansas; Thad Cochran, a Republican from Mississippi.; and Mark Pryor, a Democrat from Arkansas. It would clear up the definitions and regulations for when a rice field can be converted to hunting grounds.
Landrieu says rolling for agricultural reasons should not fall into the definition of baiting. She called the fines “senseless” and “ridiculous.”
According to a statement from Landrieu’s office, rolling is recommended by extension service agents to replenish nutrients to the fields.
The bill will give more authority to extension offices to determine if a field was with rice was rolled for agriculture reasons.
“By unfairly fining farmers and hunters for tried and true techniques, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services would make sportsmen, hunters and farmers the next endangered species,” Landrieu said.
According to Fish and Wildlife Service guidelines, “Baiting is the direct or indirect placing, exposing, depositing, distributing or scattering of salt, grain or other feed that could lure or attract waterfowl to, on or over any areas where hunters are attempting to take them.”
The agency’s guidelines also have an exemption for “fields where grain has been distributed or scattered solely as the result of a normal agricultural operation.”
Guidelines go to define manipulation as, “the alteration of natural vegetation or agricultural crops by activities such as mowing, shredding, discing, rolling, chopping, trampling, flattening, burning, or herbicide treatments.”
Kelly Connelly can be reached at KC@LaPolitics.com
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.