Today, June 3, 2003, Utah has a new Amphibian and Reptile proclamation. It was created through a joint effort between the Reptile Amphibian Negotiation Assosiation (RANA) and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. This project was discussed on Kingsnake.com briefly, but we deferred on the specifics of what we were trying to accomplish as we were pretty clear on what needed to be done and how to do it, and didn't want to be distracted answering zillions of questions. Since it has become effective this morning, I can now report on our success in creating a herper friendly proclamation which is also environmentally sound.
The big things that are in the new proclamation that most of you would be interested is the following:
1) Propagation of legally held native species would be permitted.
2) Progeny of legally held native species became the personal property of the holder with the ability to commercialize said progeny.
3) Inspection without probable cause was eliminated.
4) Animal welfare requirements were made more generic so that animals wouldn't be subject to requirements that don't apply.
5) Permits to hold controlled species have been loosened up to allow more take without all the red tape. In the past the controlled classification was treated effectively like the prohibited classification.
The History
In the latter half of 2001 Ric Blair was out looking for herps when he encountered a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) officer who told him that the DWR was revising the rule that handled reptiles and amphibians. He and a few other people got together informally to try and work at legalizing the Utah tricolors (Utah milks and Utah Mountain Kingsnake). They went through the public input process and made a presentation showing sustainable populations of both snakes at the December 18, 2001 Wildlife Board meeting. This attempt was unsuccessful. I found out about the rule change only three days before that meeting and wrote up a few notes to support the others and of course that didn't help either. The Wildlife Board did create a Reptile Workgroup in which the public could work out the issues we brought up. Somewhere along the line somebody in the Division or Wildlife Board said something that really ticked me off at their arrogance. I don't remember what it was (can't have been really important I guess) but with that, I proceeded to examine the entire proclamation and compare it to the code that authorized it. I initially found 31 items in the proclamation in which the DWR did not have the authority to implement. A couple items were redundant and the list was reduced to 27 items. The highlights of the list were:
1) Inspections of homes of herpers without probable cause.
2) A clause requiring people with herp permits to agree with everything in the proclamation.
3) Lack of property rights on progeny.
4) Inability to commercialize captive bred animals
5) Defining captive bred as 2nd generation captives
6) Animal welfare requirements that had nothing to do with reptiles or amphibians.
7) Requirements to get ag permits for importing reptiles and amphibians in order to have controlled species (species requiring a permit to possess) The DWR did not require that of the pet shops.
8) Overly restrictive policies and requirements for propagating native animals.
9) Siezing animals that are private property if the owner dies.
10) Classifying certain species as controlled or prohibited without supporting data required by law.
11) Limiting imports of non-native wildlife to 3 or less per species.
There were other technical problems and if I missed anything important other members of the group will correct me or fill in the holes 
We then organized RANA with the intent to get these illegal provisions fixed. We called for a hearing with the Wildlife Board which was scheduled for February 21, 2002. In the meantime Guy Versluis and Jason Nelson(the guys who run the Salt Lake Reptile Expo) put out petitions statewide at all the pet shops. In a couple weeks we had over 1700 signatures and the nice lady at the DWR was calling up all the pet shops to tell them we were kooks to try and stem the tide. At the Wildlife Board hearing on Feb 21, we presented our list of legal problems with the proclamation. The DWR attorney rebutted about a 1/3 of the items using legalese and case law. The Wildlife Board then voted to pass the proclamation as it was proposed and we suffered our second defeat.
We then approached the legislature and voiced our problems to them in May. We presented our problems to them, but they stopped us at item 12 of 27 and didn't want to hear anymore. They turned to the director of the DWR and told him the proclamation needed to be fixed. The oversight committee then voted to sunset the rule. This means that the rule would be brought up in the next legislative session and voted out of existance if it wasn't fixed. The committee also recommended splitting the reptile and amphibian regs from the mammals, fish, birds and other wildlife which would automatically fix some of the problems arising from requirements that had to be met but didn't apply to herps. I should also mention that the DWR attorney didn't say anything at this hearing. Its kind of hard to argue legislative intent with the legislature.
With that, the DWR started really paying attention to us. The brand new director, Kevin Conway made some proposals to the group which were well received. He even authorized a study in which members of the Reptile Workgroup would study the Utah Mountain Kingsnakes and the Utah Milksnakes. He offered members of our group reimbursement of mileage for trips taken to further that goal. He also proposed a couple other things that went above and beyond what we had asked for. So at this point we were off to a much better start. As the year progressed, they took the recommendation of the legislative oversight committee and split the reptiles and amphibians from the other animals. I then took the original proclamation and stripped out all of the offensive provisions and unrelated animal stuff and turned that over to the DWR. We went back and forth awhile and they backslid on a couple agreements, but we managed to work it all out. Once we were reasonably happy with the result, we went back to the legislature and told them we had worked out a good compromise and they could revoke the sunset of the rule.
We then went through the public input process again and all of the regional advisory committees added their stamp of approval to the new rule and sent it to the Wildlife Board for approval. This time it passed on a 4-1 vote. The proposed rule was sent to the administrative rules division for formal rulemaking. No objections were made at that time and the DWR administrative rules coordinator called me this morning to tell me that she had filed the last piece of paperwork making it official today.
The Strategy
We came up with four planks to our proclamation project. These were the basis for everything else we did.
1) Collection of herps for personal use. Emphasis on reasonable limits and no release of captive animals to the wild.
2) Possession of animals with reasonable property rights.
3) Propagation to provide animals for public consumption to create an alternate supply that does not come from the wild.
4) Commercialization of captive bred progeny. We hardlined no commercialization of wild caught animals with no exceptions.
This worked real well and we were able to clearly articulate the idea that without captive propagation, the only source of these animals is from the wild. If they really want to reduce pressure on the wild, interested persons need to have somewhere else they can get them. Allowing limited collection, propagation and commercialization of captive bred progeny solves that problem. The strategy appears to have worked.
What We Didn't Get That We Wanted
Legally held Endangered or Threatened species require a permit to be held. Native T&E species can be prohibited, and the state doesn't have any more interest in legally held T&E non-native species for conservation or management purposes.
Controlled native species like the great basin rat, glossy snakes, california kingsnakes are required to be pit tagged for identification. We have some support inside the DWR to remove this provision on low collection interest species and it may come out in the next iteration of the rule.
Utah Mountain Kingsnakes and Utah Milksnakes were not reclassified. We believe we have sound biological reasoning to get these reclassified to controlled from prohibited, but the DWR appears to have some resistance still and wants us to document hundreds of these animals before they want to consider reclassification. There was one strategic reason to not have these snakes reclassified for the initial proclamation. Every time these snakes have been tied to the other provisions we wanted, we always lost. By taking the high interest snakes out of the picture, we were able to establish a proclamation that has a good foundation in property rights and environmental soundness. When the group tries next time for reclassification of the tricolors, the only issue will be sustainable populations, not permitting process, propagation, definitions of captive bred or commercialization. The process will be simpler and much more clear cut.
Animal welfare provisions still exist. The Utah code exempted wildlife from animal cruelty statutes and hence is an illegal provision. We let this one go because the animal welfare excuse for inspections without probable cause went away. We are ok with treating animals nicely, just not when it is an excuse to overregulate the hobby.
By giving up on a few of the less important issues, it allowed us the flexibility to get major movement in the issues we cared passionately about.
Credits
Jeff Mitchell (me): for leading the charge, developing the overall strategy and knowing the political processes necessary to complete the project.
Kerry Crowther: major sounding board and support as well as being obnoxious as devils advocate to make sure the arguments we used were articulated properly. He was hired by the DWR as a consultant for the field study after presenting the known information on the Utah tricolors on our behalf. He also provided expertise on Utah Mountain Kingsnakes and milksnakes as well as provided the largest number of tricolor DNA samples during the 2002 field season.
Ric Blair: For alerting us to the initial rulemaking process and for providing much needed financial support during the initial stages.
Wade Wardrop: Friend of prominent state senator who kept the pressure on the division and lobbied other legislators on our behalf. Wade also was a calming influence on the group and helped smooth out a number of the internal fights that broke out from time to time. We got along most of the time, but there were some short nasty stretches that he helped us work through.
Mark Hazel: His scientific background and analysis came in handy as we fine tuned the strategies and pointed out the inconsistencies in DWR positions and proposing sound scientific reasons why our proposals would work.
Guy Versluis and Jason Nelson: Providing RANA with a booth at the Salt Lake Herp Expo so we could show the public what we were doing.
Ryan Hoyer: Leader of RANA since February 2003 who will take over the effort to reclassify the tricolors. He also provided gap analysis reports on the mountain kingsnake and milksnakes for the Wildlife Board presentation. And lets us know all we want to about Rubber Boas.
Shaun Vought, Jon Roylance, Chuck Elliott, Russ Cormack, and newcomers Brian Eager, Justin Julander and David Weymouth also provided support and snake hunting DNA samples.
Last, my family: kids Paul, Rachel and Mary for discussing issues, showing up at meetings and lending me car for getting to meetings when my car was broke. Rachel for being a prop in 2 newspaper articles, and Mary for creating the official RANA tee-shirt with the group logo of a golden ring with a green frog perched in it. My wife put up with all the hassles required to get this done and without her support this new proclamation wouldn't have happened.
I'm grateful for all the financial and emotional support the group gave me. I couldn't have done it without them. It was a team effort and we won.
While this post is quite long, it is still the short version of the whole story. I probably recounted some stuff that may not be accurate or missed something so the rest of the group may be likely to make any corrections and fill in any holes and answer any questions posted in response to this.
Enjoy.
A copy of the new rule may be examined at:
http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/bulletin/2003/20030501/26168.htm
It hasn't yet been posted to the administrative rules pages, but this is the version that was published in the state bulletin. It is the final copy.
Jeff
