A bill advanced through the House on Thursday that would have developers design projects to preserve as much as possible uninterrupted tracts of woods.
Wildlife advocates say such areas are critical to the health of forests and the animal species living there.
Critics say the bill, H.233, will hurt foresters and loggers while diminishing property owners’ freedom to use their land as they wish.
Several lawmakers, including Reps. Brian Smith, R-Derby, and Patti Lewis, R-Berlin, spoke passionately in defense of loggers and the forestry industry and decried the harm they said the bill represents to those workers’ livelihoods.
The bill would add consideration of contiguous forest blocks, and wildlife corridors within them, to the existing list of 10 criteria used to evaluate proposed projects under Act 250, Vermont’s land use law.
Act 250 specifically exempts forestry and logging from its purview.
Rep. Mark Higley, R-Lowell, said the bill could strengthen Act 250, which he said had oftentimes harmed residents of his district. For instance, Higley said, a mill in his district operated illegally for decades without an Act 250 permit until a new neighbor complained.
The mill owners were forced to obtain an Act 250 permit, which was very expensive, Higley said. The permit forced the owners to store logs on a different section of the property and curtail operations on federal holidays, he said.
Supporters of the bill said it will stem fragmentation of Vermont’s forests, a goal state policymakers have grappled with for over a decade.
“This is a historic vote on visionary legislation,” said Rep. James McCullough, D-Williston.
Detractors said it erodes Vermonters’ fundamental rights.
“I am one of the few who believes in private property rights, and the majority does not,” Smith said.
The bill got final House approval in a vote of 85-58. The Senate has not yet taken it up.
