New laws take effect in Wyoming

By NICK REYNOLDS Casper Star-Tribune Via Wyoming News Exchange
Posted 7/7/19

New Wyoming laws go into effect now.

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New laws take effect in Wyoming

Posted

CASPER — The first week of July is often a slow one in state government, shortened by a federal holiday and marked by a light legislative schedule.

However, the first week of July also means something else in Wyoming – the time many of the laws passed by the Legislature this winter finally go into effect.

As the clock hit midnight on Monday, more than 200 laws passed during the 2019 legislative session went into effect, impacting the lives of Wyoming residents in some ways major, some ways not.

A common centerpiece in many homes around Wyoming is a handsome, mounted set of antlers from big game like elk or bighorn sheep. The sources of those antlers can sometimes be questionable or earned through the hunt. However until now, the collection of those horns was regulated only in public lands west of the Continental Divide.

A new law, however, extends the law’s jurisdiction to west of Interstate 25 and a portion of Interstate 90 between Buffalo and the Montana border. Additionally, while the law previously limited regulation to the dates between Jan. 1 and May 1, the Game & Fish Commission can now institute the regulations at any time of year.

Hunting regulations are changing as well. A new law now restricts the selling of infrared devices or the sale of intel on the actual locations of wild game. At the same time, licensed Wyoming sportsmen are now permitted to use a single leashed hunting dog in their backcountry pursuits of big game they had wounded on the hunt.

Finally, the Game & Fish Commission can now grant lifetime fishing licenses to anyone with a “permanent physical or mental condition that prevents a person from engaging in substantial gainful activity.”

Several parental rights provisions take effect on July 1 also. Judges are now able to terminate the rights of a parent if a child was conceived as a result of a sexual assault and the parent was convicted of the sexual assault that produced the child. However, these provisions are waived if the parents lived together for two or more years immediately following the child’s birth.

Jury duty reform is just one of a number of bills Wyomingites with impacts Wyoming might recognize immediately. There are numerous other laws that go into effect here in July. See the complete story in the July 5 issue of the Bridger Valley Pioneer.