(June – October 2011) When deer, bear or elk cause damage to commercial crops, trees, beehives, or shrubbery, the Virginia property owner may seek to control this damage by obtaining a permit to kill the pest animals. This is known as a “kill permit.” At the request of the 2011 Virginia General Assembly, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) convened a stakeholder committee to address issues that had been raised during the legislative session and to identify ways to improve the kill permit system. The IEN was contracted by DGIF to help design and facilitate this consensus process, which consisted of five meetings from June through September 2011. The final Stakeholder Advisory Committee was comprised of 32 members representing six diverse core interests from agriculture, transportation, timber and other vegetation regeneration, sportsmen, neighboring property owners, and

residential neighborhoods. The committee succeeded in developing consensus recommendations that were transmitted by the DGIF report to the General Assembly in October. Kill Permit Study Report: VDGIF and Stakeholder Advisory Committee Conclusions — A Report for Delegate Harvey B. Morgan, Chairman House Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee