---
type: "Bill"
title: "Conservation and natural resources; regulate the harvest and sale of palmetto berries"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 6 of Title 12 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to forest resources and other plant life, so as to regulate the harvest and sale of palmetto berries; to provide for definitions; to provide for legislative findings; to provide for certificates of harvest; to provide for records of harvest activities and purchase transactions; to provide for prohibited acts; to provide for stop sale, stop use, and removal orders; to provide for seizure of berries; to provide for home or personal use of berries; to provide for penalties and restitution; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2019_20"
identifier: "HB 966"
citation: "Georgia HB 966 (2019_20)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Clay Pirkle", "James Burchett", "Jason Ridley", "John Corbett", "Tom McCall", "Trey Rhodes"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 16
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2020-02-20"
last_action: "2020-08-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b0fd99ce-361b-4c39-9bf5-8e372d1d2ef0"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "eb21cc14b27a43414bf8f48b9013dd8a11f59d54c4aba926015bb4b88afb28d7"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia HB 966 (2019_20) — Conservation and natural resources; regulate the harvest and sale of palmetto berries

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 6 of Title 12 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to forest resources and other plant life, so as to regulate the harvest and sale of palmetto berries; to provide for definitions; to provide for legislative findings; to provide for certificates of harvest; to provide for records of harvest activities and purchase transactions; to provide for prohibited acts; to provide for stop sale, stop use, and removal orders; to provide for seizure of berries; to provide for home or personal use of berries; to provide for penalties and restitution; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **HB 966/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/195228.pdf)
2. **LC 44 1428/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/190431.pdf)
3. **LC 45 0446S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/191943.pdf)
4. **LC 45 0446S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/191065.pdf)
5. **Sen ctee sub LC 47 0577S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/193756.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **125–42** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Clay Pirkle — primary (person)
- James Burchett — primary (person)
- Jason Ridley — primary (person)
- John Corbett — primary (person)
- Tom McCall — primary (person)
- Trey Rhodes — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-02-20** House Hopper
- **2020-02-21** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2020-02-24** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2020-02-26** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-03-03** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2020-03-03** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2020-03-04** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2020-06-17** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-06-18** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2020-06-19** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2020-06-19** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2020-06-25** House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub
- **2020-07-02** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2020-08-05** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2020-08-05** Act 571 `executive-signature`
- **2020-08-05** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b0fd99ce-361b-4c39-9bf5-8e372d1d2ef0`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).