Notwithstanding any other provision of the wildlife laws, the State Department of Fish and Wildlife shall create and implement an Oregon Landowner Damage Program that:

1. (1) Addresses damage caused by elk on privately owned lands in Oregon.
2. (2) Provides damage tags only for areas where elk are currently causing damage, where there has been a history of elk damage coupled with actions to alleviate elk damage or where the department has designated the area as an elk deemphasis area.
3. (3) Considers elk overpopulation.
4. (4) Limits the use of damage tags to taking antlerless elk.
5. (5) Limits the use of damage tags to taking elk on property owned, leased or rented by the landowner complaining of elk damage or on property owned, leased or rented by a business entity that includes the landowner as a principal partner or shareholder.
6. (6) Allows exchange of unused general season elk tags or controlled hunt elk tags for damage tags.
7. (7) Does not impose a limit on the number of total damage tags available for each landowner, except that no more than five damage tags may be valid at any one time.
8. (8) Does not impose a minimum acreage requirement for landowner participation.
9. (9) Allows landowners to register for participation in the program at any time prior to the issuance of damage tags.
10. (10) Establishes a $30 fee for landowners to register for participation in the program.
11. (11) Establishes a $15 fee for landowners to modify the landowner’s damage tag distribution.
12. (12) Authorizes department biologists to sell and exchange damage tags.
13. (13) Authorizes department biologists to establish the period of validity for damage tags through negotiation with landowners.
14. (14) Requires landowners to record the number of elk taken and, within 10 days after the end of a designated hunt period, to report to the local department biologist the number of elk taken.

Note: 496.158 was enacted into law by the Legislative Assembly but was not added to or made a part of ORS chapter 496 or any series therein by legislative action. See Preface to Oregon Revised Statutes for further explanation.

[2013 c.363 §3; 2019 c.324 §1]