Rhode Island Hunting and Fishing Licenses for Veterans and Service Members

Section 20-2-31 carries all of Rhode Island's military and veteran license provisions and it has three distinct parts. Subsection (a) extends a license rather than issuing one. Every valid license to hunt or fish held by a Rhode Island resident upon joining the armed forces or the merchant marine is extended and remains in force and valid until six months following the termination of service. A resident who bought a license and then deployed does not lose the season, or the several seasons, they paid for. Subsection (b) is a price rule and it reaches nonresidents. Every member of the armed forces or of the merchant marine may hunt or fish in Rhode Island on a license issued by the state at the fee charged to a resident civilian. A member stationed in Rhode Island whose home of record is elsewhere pays the resident price. Subsection (c) is the free license and it has two eligible groups and one important caveat. Every man or woman who was a part of the armed forces and is now a one hundred percent disabled veteran, and separately any man or woman who is one hundred percent permanently disabled whether or not a veteran, is entitled to receive a license to hunt or fish or both. On presentation of the necessary military discharge identification or disability papers or both, as prescribed by the department of environmental management, the person shall, "at the discretion of the licensing authority", receive without payment of any license fee a continuing special form of license authorising them to hunt or fish or both for so long as he or she so desires. Two things to notice there. The fee waiver is discretionary. The statute says the person is entitled to receive a license and then makes the free continuing form subject to the discretion of the licensing authority. That is unusual drafting and it means a refusal is not automatically unlawful. Bring the papers the department prescribes and ask what the department's practice is. Once granted, it never has to be re-established. The section provides that the person, "having once made application for this license, shall not again be required to appear before the licensing authority to present his or her papers." A veteran granted the continuing license in 1995 does not go back with a rating decision. The gate is a hundred percent, which is the ceiling rather than a floor part-way up, so VetTOC enforces it on this entry. A veteran below a hundred percent who is paid at the total rate through individual unemployability is in an uncertain position here: the section says "one hundred percent (100%) disabled veteran" without addressing unemployability, unlike the motor vehicle statute at 31-6-8, which names it expressly. The contrast between the two sections is the argument to make, and it is a question for the department rather than one the text settles. The section also carries an unrelated provision worth knowing: a freshwater fishing license is not required of any blind person, with blindness defined by a central visual acuity not exceeding 20/200 in the better eye with correcting lenses. Rhode Island's state park and beach benefit sits outside this section. The department of environmental management gives free entry and parking at state facilities and beaches to veterans with a hundred percent service-connected rating, and a permanent rating never requires renewal, and it exempts them from fees at the Goddard Park golf course.