While you may think the legislature didn’t accomplish much this year, the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee churned out a whole lot of work, resulting in dozens of law changes that govern our favorite outdoor pursuits. Thankfully, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has provided us with a summary of all those law changes.

They range from the transfer of any-deer permits to junior hunters and moose permits to family members, to increases in fees for hunting licenses and snowmobile registrations. There’s a good explanation of how the elimination of the concealed weapon permit requirement impacts those who are hunting. There are a lot of changes in licensing and registration laws.

And then there are the major changes, such as eliminating the minimum age for hunting and a complete rewrite of the laws governing possession of exotic animals. I have written extensively about both of those issues in previous outdoor columns.

You can access DIF&W’s summary of law changes here. But before you click on this link to check out all the law changes, brace yourself. Its 12 pages long!

The department notes that, “This is a summary ONLY of the major changes to fish and wildlife laws that were enacted in the 2015 Legislative Session. New laws that were not enacted as “emergency” take effect October 15, 2015 unless there is an effective date specified in the law. Some of the fish and wildlife related changes were enacted as emergency legislation and have already gone into effect.”