One of Vermont’s oldest trail groups has condemned racist graffiti found on its Northeast Kingdom hiking paths.
“What was found in the Northeast Kingdom was not simply graffiti, but a blatant display of bigotry and hatred directed at trail users that hold marginalized identities,” said Mike DeBonis, executive director of the Green Mountain Club, in a statement Thursday.
Trail workers in the nonprofit’s Northeast Kingdom Section discovered the graffiti on a trailhead sign in Ferdinand around the start of June. Similar incidents were reported in Island Pond and East Burke.
John Predom, president of the club’s Kingdom branch, said that, on the morning of the incident, a group member sent him a photo of the defaced sign on Route 105, near the Wenlock Wildlife Management Area in Ferdinand.
Swastikas and a reference to the Ku Klux Klan had been spray-painted on the marker, Predom said.
“I think it’s a shame,” he said. “Nobody wants to see this stuff.”
Predom told the group member to report the incident to the Vermont State Police. But the trouble didn’t end.
After hearing about the graffiti, Predom went for a hike on a trail in Island Pond. When he got to the trailhead, he said, the sign usually sitting there was gone. He called a Brighton official to ask about the missing marker and learned that it too had been vandalized with vulgarities.
And as he began telling group members about the incidents, he said, he learned that similar vandalism had been found at a playground in East Burke that day, too.
Predom believes the incidents were part of a spree. Group members were upset by the news, he said.
“The damage it does, it’s hard to recover from that,” he said, explaining that incidents like these can push people away from trails that should be accessible. “It’s hate, and it’s scary. … You don’t feel safe. Hopefully we got to it quick enough that not a lot of people got to the signs.”
Predom said the recent examples were the first he has seen in his four years living in the area and one year as local chapter president.
But DeBonis said his organization’s Long Trail crews regularly see graffiti, and the recent incidents were not the first of “hatred or discrimination seen on the trails here in Vermont.”
Though the trails are free and open, DeBoni said, some groups of marginalized people may feel less comfortable or welcome to go hiking.
“What we’re seeing in society writ large is what you also see on the trail, to some extent,” he said. He said his group is committed to supporting those folks, and condemning the recent graffiti was the first step in doing so.
Predom said the broader Green Mountain Club organization has been working to be more inclusive and inviting. At the local level, he’s focused on getting any hateful messages cleaned up — the ones found this month are gone — and continuing to facilitate group outings.
“We just try to post hikes and make sure everyone knows that they’re welcome,” he said. “Because we enjoy doing group hikes for everyone — especially people who are new to the area.”
The Northeast Kingdom incidents aren’t the only recent concerns about discrimination on trails in Vermont. Julie Moore, secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, wrote a commentary June 7 condemning vandalism of a kiosk on public land with “violent, intimidating and targeting markings.”
