Editor’s note: This commentary is by David F. Kelley, who is an attorney and a co-founder of Project Harmony (now PH International) and a former member of the Hazen Union School Board.
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “No man ever steps into the same river twice.” Rivers are a constant reminder that nothing is permanent except change. Today the digital and information revolution is changing our world at such breakneck speed that it can be easy to ignore even some of the most important changes taking place around us. One of those changes is the human relationship to wildlife. That relationship is undergoing a sea-change and as stewards of that precious resource the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife needs to adapt.
As just one example of change, in 1985 Vermont sold 47,068 resident hunting licenses. By 2016 sales of resident hunting licenses had declined to 22,200 — a 53 percent decline in one generation! Non-resident license sales declined even more dramatically. In 2016 less than a thousand people bought a trapping license. The decline in hunting, fishing and trapping license sales is so dramatic that Vermont’s Department of Fish and Wildlife concluded in its FY 2017 Performance Report that the department had a funding “crisis.”
Importantly, concern for, and participation in, wildlife related activities has actually increased. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracks wildlife associated recreation. Though hunting and fishing have declined, wildlife studying, viewing and photography and other non-consumptive activities have increased markedly. From 2006 to 2016 the number of people classified as “wildlife watchers” increased nationwide from 71.1 million to 86 million. Care, concern, appreciation and participation in wildlife associated recreation have not diminished. They have grown.
In 2016 a Blue Ribbon Panel of the Association of State Fish and Wildlife Agencies (of which Vermont is a member) concluded that the changes taking place in our nation’s relationship with wildlife were so significant that: “If state fish and wildlife agencies fail to adapt, their ability to manage fish and wildlife will be hindered and their public and political support will be compromised.” But so far the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife has been deaf to the need for change. In Vermont we still allow people to chase bears with hounds in June, only a couple of months after they have had cubs. This would be illegal in some of the best hunting states in the country, such as Montana.
Despite the fact that trappers only represent 0.14 percent of Vermont’s population, the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department has shown a disproportionate allegiance to them, to the exclusion of wildlife watchers and advocates. In one recent example of the time, resources and funds the department spends catering to trappers’ demands, a trapper sought to extend the trapping season on two species of wildlife: bobcats and river otters. The department spent tens of thousands of dollars and staff time spanning three years in support of the petition that stood to benefit 60 Vermont residents who, by subjecting these animals to the extended suffering of leghold and body gripping traps, would remove them from the Vermont landscape and the enjoyment of other Vermonters for no good reason.
The commissioner himself accuses people opposed to leghold traps as being opposed to hunting. Nothing could be more dishonest or further from the truth. I have been a hunter and have great respect for those who hunt their own food with skill, care and respect. But if we fail to act, the biggest losers will be hunters. Because more and more Vermonters, like myself, will say “no” to bear chasing and leghold traps by posting our land.
Last year, in recognition of changes taking place in our relationship to wildlife, New Hampshire’s Legislature created a study commission to begin the process of reforming their Department of Fish and Wildlife. Vermont should do the same. In addition, we should begin to appoint members to the Fish and Wildlife Board who will represent the growing public interest in non-consumptive wildlife associated recreation. Finally, we should also appoint an independent body to examine the role of the commissioner in addressing public concerns about wildlife and what our department is doing to address their funding crisis and their blue ribbon panel’s call to reform fish and wildlife organizations and structures.
The stewards of Vermont’s fish and wildlife would do well to heed the words of Bob Dylan, who described the ever changing river more ominously than Heraclitus: “You’d better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a changin’.”
