Wildlife Diseases - Authority & Jurisdiction - Rhode Island

The director of environmental management shall have the following powers and duties: (1) To supervise and control the protection, development, planning, and utilization of the natural resources of the state, such resources, including, but not limited to: water, plants, trees, soil, clay, sand, gravel, rocks and other minerals, air, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, shellfish, and other forms of aquatic, insect, and animal life(,) (2) To exercise all functions, powers, and duties heretofore vested in the department of agriculture and conservation, and in each of the divisions of the department, such as the promotion of agriculture and animal husbandry in their several branches, including the inspection and suppression of contagious diseases among animals(,) the regulation of the marketing of farm products(,) the inspection of orchards and nurseries(,) the protection of trees and shrubs from injurious insects and diseases(,) protection from forest fires(,) the inspection of apiaries and the suppression of contagious diseases among bees . . .; The director of the department of environmental management shall, upon receipt of a mutually acceptable budget from the director of the agricultural experiment station of the university of Rhode Island, incorporate that item in his or her annual departmental budget so as to support adequately the necessary research on the Dutch elm and related wilt disease problems of trees. The research shall consist of development and perfection of agents and techniques to be used in the prevention and/or suppression of those diseases. The director of environmental management shall, and he or she is authorized to, transfer in lump sum moneys appropriated for this research program to the director of the agricultural experiment station, and those funds shall be maintained in a special fund to be used explicitly for those studies. Findings accruing from these investigations shall be made public information.;

Citation:  Gen.Laws 1956, § 42-17.1-2; Gen.Laws 1956, § 2-17-20;