By Stacey Brown/DWR

Every other year, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) takes a deep look at existing boating regulations and determines which regulations need to be added, changed, or eliminated to best meet the needs of Virginia boaters. As part of this process, we solicit comments from the general public during our scoping period, which will run from January 11 through February 25. This is the best time to weigh in on changes you’d like to see.

As a Boating Division, we take public input very seriously and any comments that you make will be considered in the process, summarized, and presented at our Wildlife and Boat Committee meeting on March 20. As the Boating Division Director, I personally review every comment that we receive and share them with appropriate members of our staff for consideration.

I encourage you to participate in this process because to be honest, we don’t get as much feedback as we’d like from the general public. In addition to informing this specific process, the comments are vital for implementing and modifying plans that we have in place for boating safety, waterways management, and boat registration and titling.

If you don’t comment during the scoping period, you will have another chance to comment after draft regulations are presented at the May 24^th meeting of the Wildlife and Boat Committee. At this point, potential regulatory changes will be drafted, discussed with the Committee, and then released for public comment.

You can submit comments via this link:

http://dwr.virginia.gov/regulations

Or via mail at:

Department of Wildlife Resources

Attn: Fisheries Division – Board Proposals 2024

P.O. Box 90778

Henrico, VA 23228-0778