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Hunters Anglers Trappers Association of Vermont |
              
Gun Owners
Other unsung environmental
stewards are Vermont's Hunters, Anglers, and Trappers
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VERMONT FISH AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: May 4, 2012
Media Contacts: Cedric Alexander,
802-751-0105; Mark Scott, 802-583-7194
Vermont Moose Hunting Applications Are AvailableWAITSFIELD, VT -- Vermont moose hunting permit applications are available on the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department’s website (www.vtfishandwildlife.com), and printed applications will be at Vermont license agents statewide in June. Lottery applications are $10 for residents and $25 for nonresidents. The deadline to apply is July 5. Winners of the permit lottery will purchase resident hunting permits for $100 and nonresident hunting permits for $350. Hunters also will have the option to bid on five moose hunting permits in an auction to be announced later. “Permit allocation numbers will not be finalized until a regulation is adopted this summer,” said Wildlife Division Director Mark Scott. “We are making the applications available now for hunters’ convenience. Hunters can look online at the proposed number of permits and Wildlife Management Units proposed to be open for moose hunting.” The Fish and Wildlife Department has proposed 385 moose hunting permits for the regular October 20-25 moose season, and 50 permits for an archery moose season October 1-7. The 2011 Vermont Moose Harvest Report with details on last year’s hunt, including the towns where moose were taken, is on Fish and Wildlife’s website. Look under “Hunting and Trapping” and then “Big Game.” UVM Political Science Students making UNAUTHORIZED site "safety" inspect...
section of the Vermont report. The Vermont lead report was pseudo science. --------------------------Original E-mail released 4/25/12---------------------------- Last Friday I became aware that UVM students had been making site visits to Vermont gun ranges. I learned this because an officer of the North Country Sportsmen's Club (NSCS) in Williston encountered three UVM students on the club property. The students were informed they should have eye and ear protection and they were there without permission. asked what they were doing on the property they related they were there to do a site inspection for a study requested by Chittenden County State Senator "Ginny" Lyons. The NCSC officer contacted Senator Lyons and it turns out they were doing this site inspection at the instruction of UVM Professor Anthony "Jack" Gierzynski, who is an Internship Director for the UVM Political Science Department. The study was checking for lead management and was being performed as a research project for the Vermont Legislative Research of the James M. Jeffords Center. The UVM students impressed the NCSC officer as not having any real working knowledge of firearms or ranges. They also showed up a range without ear or eye protection. The officer related they did not have any writing or recording materials or devices. The NCSC officer contacted Professor Gierzynski to get access to the completed research report. What he received was what is reportedly a "rough draft" of the study and it is provided as an attachment to this E-mail. The report is incorporated into a previous study performed about ranges. It was requested by Senator Lyons in an apparent reaction to an April, 2011 article about ranges in Seven Days Magazine. The original study was lacking in objectivity and the level of the work was quite disappointing for a college of the standing of UVM. This one is no better. Starting on Page 9 the study reports the UVM students visited four ranges in Vermont. The Bulleye's range, Barre Fish & Game Club, Waterbury-Stowe Club and the North Country Sportsmen's Club in Williston were reviewed in March and April... Apparently, the ranges visited were selected because they had shotgun ranges. In February, 2007 the Vermont Attorney General and Acting Commissioner of Health issued the report "Get the Lead Out of Vermont" which had three pages dedicated to ranges and specifically targeted skeet and trap ranges. This raises important questions: Is it ethical for a faculty academic research leader to dispatch students to private property for data gathering unannounced inspections without the permission or prior knowledge of the property owner? Given the fact that UVM receives funding support from your taxes, do Vermont taxpayers want to have their tax dollars funding research that is clearly biased and certainly appears to be driven to justify the goal of finding ranges as bad actors? Do the graduates of UVM want to continue to donate to the college so long as it engages in these type of research projects. Is it a sound safety practice for UVM students to be dispatched to ranges for a research project without ear and eye protection? Concerned about this situation? You should be. In Vermont there used to be respect for private property. Apparently clubs and ranges are sufficiently Politically Incorrect to the point that UVM students on a mission for a state senator just show up and traipse all over the property. All in the name of ethical research. The UVM President's Office is located at 85 South Prospect Street, 344-353 Waterman Building, Burlington, Vermont 05405. Tel. 802-656-3186
VERMONT FISH and
WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT
News release
For Immediate Release:
April 26, 2012
Forrest Hammond
802-885-8832
Public Hearings May 22 & 23 on Proposed Bear Hunting RegulationWAITSFIELD, VT – The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Board will hold two public hearings to discuss a proposed bear hunting regulation designed to increase bear hunting opportunities, stabilize Vermont’s growing bear population and provide Fish & Wildlife Department biologists with additional data to better manage black bears in Vermont.The hearings will be held from 7-8:30 p..m. on Tuesday, May 22, at the Kehoe Conservation Camp in Castleton and Wednesday, May 23, at Lyndon State College in Room 100. The board voted in March on a proposal presented by department biologists that would extend the annual bear season by four days and establish a new, separate black bear tag for those hunters who want to pursue bear in advance of the November deer rifle season. Under the proposal, the overlap of the annual bear and November deer rifle season would increase from five to nine days. Bear hunters pursuing bears from the Sept. 1 opening day of bear season until the opening day of deer season would be required to purchase an inexpensive bear tag ($5 for residents and $15 for nonresidents). Hunters wishing to only take a bear during the time period of the bear season overlap with the November deer season would continue to get a bear tag along with their deer tag on their general hunting license at no additional cost. The changes would take effect in 2013. “We’re fortunate in Vermont to have a healthy, growing black bear population,” said Mark Scott, Director of Wildlife for Vermont Fish & Wildlife. “The additional four days of hunting in November under this proposal will help us to slowly stabilize the bear population. The bear license will enable us to gather essential information about hunter effort and success as well as bear hunter numbers -- measures that are vital for better estimates of Vermont’s bear population. We believe bear management in Vermont can then be more responsive to changing bear populations and public interests.” Biologists estimate Vermont’s bear population at about 6,000 animals, which is at the upper end of the population goals in the Vermont Big Game Management Plan (2010-2020). Four hundred bears were harvested in 2011. Hunters typically harvest between 400-600 black bears each autumn in Vermont. The annual bag limit for bears is one per hunter. “In 1990, Vermont’s bear season was shortened by four days in November because an objective at that time was to increase the bear population,” said Scott. “We achieved that, and now we’re aiming to stabilize the population. In recent years we’ve seen a tripling of bear-human conflicts and an eightfold increase in automobile collisions with bears.” As part of the Fish & Wildlife Board’s rule process, the proposal must be voted on at two more upcoming board meetings. VERMONT FISH and WILDLIFE
News Release
For Immediate
Release: April 26, 2012
Media contact: Mark Scott, 802-583-7294 / Scott Darling 802-786-3862
May Deer Hearings Set for St Albans and
Springfield
The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department will hold two public hearings on white-tailed deer management in May to give Vermonters the opportunity to review 2011 hunting season results and discuss the details of the 2012 Antlerless Permitting and Youth Season Recommendations. One meeting will be Monday, May 14, in St. Albans and the other Tuesday, May 15, in Springfield. Three public hearings on deer were held in Castleton, Montpelier and Orleans in March, prior to the antlerless recommendation. The two May hearings provide the public the opportunity to comment on the department’s recommendation for the number of muzzleloader season antlerless deer permits, as well as the antlerless harvest during archery season and the Youth Deer Weekend. The meetings will be held 7-8:30 p.m. at the St. Albans Town Educational Center Cafeteria, 169 South Main Street, St. Albans on May 14, and in the Riverside Junior High School Cafeteria, 13 Fairground Road, Springfield on May 15. As in the three March meetings, wildlife biologists will share information on 2011 hunting season results as well as data gathered at biological check stations on antler measurements, ages and weights of deer. They will also review winter severity data for 2012, which indicated Vermont had one of the least severe winters on record. The biologists will discuss prospects for next fall’s deer season, including the new recommendations, and take questions from the audience. Harvest totals from the 2011 hunting seasons show Vermont hunters took 12,132 deer during archery, youth, rifle, and muzzleloader seasons. Those totals will be discussed in detail at the meetings. The 2011 White-tailed Deer Report and the 2012 Antlerless Permitting and Youth Season Recommendation are available on the department’s website (www.vtfishandwildlife.com).
“We are holding these meetings to share the latest information we have on
Vermont’s deer, but also to hear from hunters and other Vermonters who
care about deer,” said Director of Wildlife Mark Scott. “I encourage
anyone interested to attend one of the meetings.” VERMONT FISH & WILDLIFE
Press Release
For Immediate Release: April 26, 2012
Media Contact: Tom Wiggins, 802-479-8783
Kids’ Fishing Events Being Held This
Spring
Here’s a great opportunity for young people to give fishing a try. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department has released a list of upcoming fishing events, most of them intended just for kids. The department has a “Children’s Fishing Program” which provides kids with the opportunity for a fun and successful fishing experience at locally organized fishing events. Organizers of these events often are charitable, community, or non-profit groups such as fire departments, fish and game clubs, Rotary, Lions, town recreation committees, 4-H clubs, and scouts. Most kids’ fishing events are open to the public, although they may be restricted to town residents or to a particular group of individuals. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department provides about 20,000 eight-to-ten inch trout for the program, with each event receiving 150 to 300 fish. Kids’ fishing events generally start in late April and continue through June. A list of the events, which is periodically updated, appears on Fish & Wildlife’s website (www.vtfishandwildlife.com). Click on “Fishing” and then on “Kids Fishing Events.” Vermont Fish & Wildlife also has a “Let’s Go Fishing” Program where trained volunteers teach and encourage young people and their families how to fish. The volunteer instructors teach fishing skills, how to use different types of tackle, the importance of good aquatic habitat, fishing ethics and fishing regulations. Clinics are planned throughout the state during the spring and summer months. Check your local newspapers and bait shops for clinics in your area. You can learn more about “Let’s Go Fishing” on Fish & Wildlife’s website (vtfishandwildlife.com) under Fishing or Youth Pages.
Editors: Here is a link to the list of kids’ fishing events:
http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/fish_kidsbrook.cfm
VERMONT FISH and
WILDLIFE
Press Release
For Immediate Release:
April 10, 2012
Media Contact: Lael A.
Will 802.885.8829
Lael Will -- New
Fisheries Biologist in Springfield
SPRINGFIELD, VT -- Lael Will was recently hired by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department as a fisheries biologist at the department’s southern regional office in Springfield. She will be working with fisheries biologist Ken Cox to monitor, manage and protect fisheries in Windham and southern Windsor counties, as well as the Batten Kill watershed.
Lael’s fisheries background is diverse and has taken her all over the country. A native of western Massachusetts, she received her Bachelor’s of Science in Marine Resource Development from the University of Rhode Island in 2000. She also spent one year studying marine biology at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. Upon obtaining her bachelor’s degree, she began working for the U..S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Warm Springs Regional Fisheries Center in Georgia where she worked with striped bass and robust redhorse. She then worked as a fisheries biologist for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in northern California, where she conducted restoration monitoring of Pacific salmonids.
In 2006, she was accepted into the graduate program at the University of Arkansas, where she studied fish communities on the Arkansas River. After obtaining her master’s degree in 2009, she continued to work for the university as a research associate, conducting research on alligator gar and yellowcheek darter. Her most recent position landed her in Santa Rosa California, where she worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service on steelhead and green sturgeon.
Lael is passionate about her career and is excited to be part of the department’s mission to protect and conserve Vermont’s fish and their habitats for the people of Vermont.
Contact Lael Will at the Springfield District Fisheries Office, 100 Mineral St. Springfield VT 05156, or by phone 802.885.8829, or via e mail at lael.will@state.vt.us. Dear member of the Chittenden County Fish & Game Club, As a Richmond resident you may already know our club has been involved in an ongoing legal battle with a few neighbors who don’t like the fact an organization that has been in operation since 1926, long before any of them moved in, is still there. We are an essential part of Richmond’s recreational outlets for hundreds of residents and added to the town’s quality of life for over 250members in just the last decade. After multiple hearings with the town boards, 3 court sessions (including Vermont Supreme Court) the issue is coming to a head after 10 years. All this came about by unsubstantiated testimony in the original 2003 court case. That led the judge to rule we had expanded usage by 2X since enactment of the zoning laws in 1969, and now the town is seeking to require us to cut usage in half, under a zoning “Notice of Violation”. In 1969 we had 2000 members, allowed unlimited guests and operated from dawn to dark, as opposed to 7-800 members now, no guests and reduced hours. The Town Select Board has apparently approved the hiring of counsel to represent the Town, and its zoning administrator, in the Club’s appeal of the Notice of Violation, to the Town Development Review Board. If you enjoy the use of the range, archery, ponds, etc. and think this action an injustice, it is critical you come to the Development Review Board at the town hall on Wednesday, April 11th for the 7 pm meeting to show your support. Please make the effort to attend for your own benefit and we are sure all will be respectful as we always have been. Thank you, and hope to see you there..
2012_Crossbow_FWD_Presentation.pdf
HAT Survey Results
Would you support a $10.00 surcharge on each ADULT hunting license sale
which MUST be deposited into an escrow account to be used solely for DEER
WINTER HABITAT improvement on both public and private lands?
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