The Virginia Board of Wildlife Resources (formerly the Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries) oversees the
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Virginia that regulates wildlife conservation.
History
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries was created on June 17, 1916, under the ...
.
Membership
The Code of Virginia provides that "the Board shall consist of not more than one member from each congressional district". Following Census 2000, Virginia was allocated 11 Congressional districts; therefore, the Board was limited to a maximum of 11 members.
Members are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the General Assembly.
Powers
The Board has power to:
*Appoint the Director of the Department,
*Acquire lands and waters in the Commonwealth,
*Establish buildings, structures, dams, lakes, ponds, public landings, wharves, or docks,
*Regulate or prohibit drilling, dredging or other operations on VDGIF property,
*Conduct operations for the preservation and propagation of game birds, game animals, fish and other wildlife,
*Introduce new species of game birds, game animals or fish to Virginia,
*Publish and distribute educational matter pertaining to wildlife,
*Collect user fees for admittance, parking, and hunting,
*Delegate power to the Director of Game and Inland Fisheries, and
*Regulate hunting, taking, capture, killing, possession, sale, purchase and transportation of wild birds, wild animals, and inland water fish.
Rulemaking process
The Board holds meetings every year to consider amendments to the
Virginia Administrative Code
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United Stat ...
. In even-numbered years, fish and aquatic regulations are reviewed. In odd numbered years, game and terrestrial nongame wildlife regulations are reviewed. Procedures for emergency situations had not yet been developed, as of 2004.
Well-known regulations
Snakeheads
A high-profile regulation issued by the Board is 4VAC15-30-40, which bans the importation of
snakehead fish.
Wild animals
*4VAC15-30-10 bans possession of wild animals in Virginia.
*4VAC15-20-50
defines a wild animal as "Any member of the animal kingdom, except
domestic
Domestic may refer to:
In the home
* Anything relating to the human home or family
** A domestic animal, one that has undergone domestication
** A domestic appliance, or home appliance
** A domestic partnership
** Domestic science, sometimes c ...
animals, including without limitation any native, naturalized, or nonnative (exotic)
mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
,
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
,
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
,
amphibia
Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbore ...
n,
reptile
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...
,
mollusk
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...
,
crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
,
arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...
or other
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
, and includes any hybrid of them, except as otherwise specified in regulations of the board, or part, product, egg, or offspring of them, or the dead body or parts of them."
The regulation then lists 26 domestic animals (
dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
s,
cat
The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
s,
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...
s, etc.) which are exempt from the definition. Some Virginians, such as
ferret
The ferret (''Mustela furo'') is a small, Domestication, domesticated species belonging to the family Mustelidae. The ferret is most likely a domesticated form of the wild European polecat (''Mustela putorius''), evidenced by their Hybrid (biol ...
and
skunk
Skunks are mammals in the family Mephitidae. They are known for their ability to spray a liquid with a strong, unpleasant scent from their anal glands. Different species of skunk vary in appearance from black-and-white to brown, cream or ginge ...
enthusiasts, would like to see additional animals added to the list of
allowed pets.
References
29.1-102. Board of Game and Inland Fisheries; how constituted; meetings29.1-103. Powers and duties of the Board Florida Museum of Natural History, February 27, 2003.
VDGIF Regulatory Process 2005.
{{authority control
State agencies of Virginia