Illuzzi encourages ATV clubs to pressure Shumlin; More permits needed to control deer damage?
Editor’s note: Paul Lefebvre is a longtime staff writer for the Barton Chronicle.
MONTPELIER — With their options falling somewhere between slim and none, four-wheeler riders are hoping that Northeast Kingdom Senator Vince Illuzzi might pull a rabbit out of the hat and restore their goal to use state land as connecting links in a network of private trails.
That goal appeared to be dashed last week when Gov. Peter Shumlin ordered the Agency of Natural Resources to rescind a rule that took effect two years ago under the Douglas administration that allowed ATV clubs to petition the agency to operate on state lands.
The rescission had the effect of leaving members of the Vermont All-Terrain Vehicles Sportsmen Association out in the cold when they met Saturday at their annual meeting at the Canadian Club in Barre.
Dejection was clearly on the face of Anah Tuttle, VASA’s secretary, when she rose to tell the 100 or so riders in attendance that their sport had suffered a setback.
“I have been knocked to my knees, if not completely crushed for all the work I have done for my community,” said Tuttle, a Topsham resident.
Although Shumlin had said during his campaign he was opposed to ATVs using state lands, last week’s decision left some members feeling as if they had been betrayed.
She recalled the days when ATVs were banned in her hometown because of damages they were causing on private and public property. But as the sport organized into working clubs that maintained trails and enforced local rules and ordinances, the town lifted the ban, and ATV all wheeling appeared to be on the road to legitimacy.
Until, that is, last week’s decision from the new administration, which Tuttle predicted would lead to illegal riding.
“If you keep us out, there’ll be no enforcement,” she said. “That’s what clubs do.”
About 22 local clubs make up VASA, which was founded roughly 10 years ago and has anywhere from 2,500 to 2,900 members. Executive Director Danny Hale said that, following last week’s announcement, the Governor called him and assured him “he would be working with us,” to come up with alternatives.
But, at the same time, Hale noted that a restriction to use state land would stymie the sport’s growth. Most every club in the state, he said, has a network of trails that can only be connected by a trail running through state land.
And if VASA is kept off state lands, he added, “at some point it is going to restrict its growth.”
Although Shumlin had said during his campaign he was opposed to ATVs using state lands, last week’s decision left some members feeling as if they had been betrayed.
One rider said he felt as if he had been “sucker punched.” Another called it “a dumb, dumb move,” while a member of the Green Mountain Trail Riders said ATV riders, like other Vermonters, “should be able to use state land.” One man even promised that ATV riders would get even at the polls when the gcomes up for election in 2012.
By the time the comments were over, the stage was set for Illuzzi, who earlier had been characterized as one of the top five legislators in the state.
In putting the decision in the best possible light, Illuzzi cautioned ATV members to go easy on the new governor, whom he characterized as someone who had grown up in rural Windham County.
“Don’t think that you have an opponent, but an ally,” he said, after calling the governor an astute businessman.
Illuzzi, who had been asked to speak to the group prior to its sudden change in fortune, said the governor made his decision as the Conservation Law Foundation was mounting a legal challenge in court. The senator suggested the present rule was on shaky ground because it had been implemented against the decision of the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules.
“It makes sense to regroup and start again,” he told the VASA assembly.
Illuzzi, who chairs the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, recommended VASA find common ground with other groups in the state, implying that connecting trails on state land would sooner or later be seen as an economic benefit.
“I see where it has worked in our sister states,” he said, noting that both Maine and New Hampshire have trail systems that include state lands. And as Vermont’s population ages, he predicted that more and more people would take up the sport to travel on land where their legs will no longer take them.
The senator went on to advise that a battle is waiting to be joined. “Your legislative support is growing,” he said.
More permits needed to control deer damage?
More testimony from the Department of Fish and Wildlife is scheduled this week on a bill that would allow landowners to expand the number of deer shot for overbrowsing timber lots and preventing regeneration.
The additional testimony is coming after the department’s commissioner and a biologist last week presented critical testimony of the bill before the House Committee on Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources.
Commissioner Pat Berry, who was recently appointed to head the department by Shumlin, told legislators he preferred to resolve the problem “through existing management practices.”
He asked committee members to pretend for a moment there was no bill before them, saying there should be a more effective way of handling the problem without going through the Legislature.
Most of the damage is done after a lot has been logged and deer come in and browse the hardwood seedlings. The problem is further exacerbated by an influx of invasive plants that the deer do not eat, according to testimony from foresters familiar with the problem.
“I feel that we can handle this,” he said, speaking of the department.
The bill marks the second time around in as many years that legislators have tried to do something about deer overbrowsing. The deer are causing acute problems for timberland owners in mostly the southeastern end of the state where deer density is high, ranging from 18 to 21 deer per square mile.
Previous testimony before the committee indicates that most of the damage is done after a lot has been logged and deer come in and browse the hardwood seedlings. The problem is further exacerbated by an influx of invasive plants that the deer do not eat, according to testimony from foresters familiar with the problem.
The bill, which died in the Senate last year, is being proposed by the committee chairman, Representative David Deen, a Democrat from Westminster and representing a district in Windham County where deer overbrowsing is especially intense.
Comments from members of the committee suggest they are concerned that nothing will be done unless a bill is passed.
Testimony from Commissioner Berry last week, however, may have convinced one committee member that the department is ready to tackle the problem.
Republican Representative Bob Lewis of Derby said he was pleased to see the department was keeping an open mind toward the scope of the problem.
“It’s not what we were hearing last time we addressed this situation,” he said.
Both Commissioner Berry and department biologist Scott Darling said that an increase in antlerless permits during hunting season had begun to show results in areas where deer overbrowsing has been the heaviest.
Department estimates place the deer herd at roughly 141,000, which Mr. Darling said is within the state’s carrying capacity for browse. Yet, because the problem is a regional one, and deer habitat varies even in areas where the overbrowsing is heaviest, some believe that an increase in antlerless permits — which allow hunters to take female deer — will fail to do the job.
Commissioner Berry suggested that regional adjustments could be made on the basis of habitat, and noted that hunters and landowners both have the same goal in mind. He warned, however, of offending the public by passing a bill that would allow landowners to shoot ten nuisance deer, or more than twice as many allowed under the present law.
The push to find common ground between sportsmen and timber owners may be aided by a shared concern.
“A healthy forest produces a healthy deer herd,” noted Mr. Darling, who added that the impact on a timber lot is greatest when density ranges from 18 to 21 deer per square mile.
Because of the severe winters in the Northeast Kingdom, he said the department’s density goal ranges between 10 and 15 per square mile.
Also testifying last week was Michael Snyder, the new commissioner of Forests, Parks and Recreation.
As presently proposed, the bill would require overbrowsing complaints to be verified by a forester before a permit could be issued to shoot nuisance deer.
Commissioner Snyder, however, warned that if the burden falls on county foresters to assess damages caused by overbrowsing, the Legislature would be passing an “unfunded mandate.”
Asked if the bill should contain a fee for such services, he replied he couldn’t make a recommendation without first giving the idea more thought.
Still seen as a work in progress, the bill is considering a formula that would determine how many deer a landowner might dispatch. Some argue the number should be tailored to the number of acres a landowner owns, while other say it is foolhardy to cap the number at ten.
“That’s makes no sense to me,” said Commissioner Snyder at one point in his testimony.
Within the committee there was dissension with a criteria stipulating that only landowners who keep their land open, or not posted, would be eligible to participate in the program.
Rep. Bob Krebs of South Hero said he would not support a bill containing that exclusion.
Posting was also on the mind of the department’s top enforcement officer, Colonel David LeCours.
“What would be considered posted land?” he asked.
While random signs alone do not comply with the state’s posting law, he said hunters often will not trespass on land where signage has denied access.
Colonel LeCours is also scheduled to return to the committee this week to testify about enforcement under the present law.
