Virginia Law

A. Upon receipt of a valid Landowner License Program application from a landowner within the Elk Management Zone, the director or the director's designee shall verify the application materials and have sole discretion in enrolling the property in the Landowner License Program. The application deadline shall be published by the department no less than 30 days prior to the deadline.

B. Landowners enrolled in the Landowner License Program maintain the right to limit access to certain areas of the property for safety or privacy reasons. Enrollment in the Landowner License Program does not preclude or limit in any way the landowner from allowing other hunting or other hunters on the property.

C. The department shall determine and make available to the public a program guidance document outlining how landowners enrolled in the Landowner License Program shall accrue points toward a special elk hunting license, the number of points necessary to be awarded such license, and other program requirements. The program guidance document will be published no less than 30 days prior to the application deadline.

D. Landowners who accrue the necessary number of points, as defined in the program guidance document, on an enrolled property may enter a landowner lottery for a special elk hunting license.

E. Landowners enrolled in the Landowner License Program shall not subdivide contiguous properties under the same ownership into multiple, smaller parcels for the purposes of this program.

F. License points cannot be sold or traded. License points are nontransferable if the property changes ownership, except that if the property is inherited from parents, grandparents, or children, resident or nonresident, license points may be transferred. The department may request documentation to certify the relationship between seller and purchaser as well as a copy of bill of sale.

G. Landowners receiving a special elk hunting license shall comply with all of the requirements established in this section as well as 4VAC15-90-510, 4VAC15-90-520, and § 29.1-305.01 of the Code of Virginia. Landowners who fail to comply with this chapter may forfeit any accrued license points and may not be eligible to accrue new license points.

H. No landowner shall charge a fee for hunters to hunt elk on properties enrolled in the Landowner License Program.

I. A special elk hunting license transferee may be rejected if it is determined that the transferee has (i) a hunting license revocation at the time the transferee is drawn, (ii) been convicted of one or more wildlife violations within five years prior to the last date of the application period, or (iii) been convicted of one or more violations involving elk. In determining the transferee's eligibility, the department shall take into account the nature and severity of the violations.