TRAILS; PACK AND SADDLE & ORVS                                                      H.B. 5275 (S-1):

                                                                                                    SUMMARY OF BILL

                                                                                      REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE

House Bill 5275 (Substitute S-1 as reported)

Sponsor:  Representative Triston Cole

House Committee:  Tourism and Outdoor Recreation

Senate Committee:  Outdoor Recreation and Tourism

CONTENT

The bill would amend Part 721 (Michigan Trailways) of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act to do the following:

-- Allow an individual to use a pack and saddle animal in an area in which public hunting is permitted to retrieve legally harvested deer, bear, or elk using the most direct route that did not enter a stream, river, or wetland.

-- Require the Department of Natural Resources, by December 31, 2018, to complete a comprehensive inventory of forest roads that are State roads.

-- Specify that forest roads would have to be open to motorized use by the public unless designated otherwise by the Department.

-- Require the Department to notify a local unit of government before restricting the use of a road or trail for access to public land within that local unit unless the restriction were imposed to protect public health or safety in an emergency situation.

The bill also would amend Part 811 (Off-Road Recreation Vehicles) to allow an individual to operate an off-road recreation vehicle (ORV) to remove legally harvested deer, bear, or elk from public land under certain conditions, during firearm deer season when the operation is otherwise prohibited.

In addition, the bill would repeal Section 81126 of the Act, which pertains to various ORV planning and reporting requirements, and their applicability to the Upper Peninsula.

MCL 324.72101 et al.                                                        Legislative Analyst:  Jeff Mann

FISCAL IMPACT

The bill would have a negative fiscal impact on the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and no fiscal impact on local units of government. The bill would require the DNR to conduct an inventory of State-owned forest roads, which, depending on the extent to which the data are already available, would introduce some new administrative and programmatic costs. The DNR estimates these costs to be approximately $500,000. Half of this amount would be staff

costs to visit and assess the condition of each road, and the other half would be related to the development of a geographic information system database. The bill would not appropriate additional funds to cover these costs; therefore, absent any future appropriation, these costs would have to be borne by existing resources.

Date Completed:  5-20-16                                                     Fiscal Analyst:  Josh Sefton

This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.