This commentary is by David Kelley, a resident of Greensboro.
In response to Spencer Crispe’s recent commentary: The proposed “purple paint law” doesn’t do anything to change the basic laws of Vermont regarding access to privately owned land. In fact, because of discrepancies and contradictions in Vermont’s statutes, those laws need revision.
Title 10, Section 5201 requires that a “no trespass” sign be in a form furnished by the commissioner of Fish & Wildlife, be signed and dated by the landowner, and be recorded annually with the local town clerk.
Title 13, Section 3705 contains no such requirements. And importantly, that section actually makes it a crime (punishable by up to three months in jail) to enter on private land when there is simply a “sign or placard” that gives “reasonable notice” against trespass.
It is a discrepancy that needs to be addressed. A “purple paint” law would clarify this discrepancy and simplify a law that most people, including lawyers, often don’t understand.
As a Vermonter who grew up hunting and fishing in the forests and streams around our home in Pittsford, I am sympathetic to Mr. Crispe’s complaints. However, today I live in Greensboro and have had to cope with guys parking their pickup trucks in front of our house and turning packs of hounds loose to run all over our and our neighbors’ lands, terrorizing bears (not to mention our cats and dogs) even in the hottest summer months when cubs haven’t come close to being weaned.
When they aren’t chasing bears to exhaustion, the hounds have often been engaged in what is little more than legalized dogfighting with coyotes and foxes. This is while the owners just sit in their trucks with smartphones, tracking their packs of hounds with radio collars like it is some kind of kids’ video game.
Our land is now posted and so is most of our neighbors’, and neither packs of hounds nor trappers are welcome. Others (horseback riders, hikers, skiers, etc.) simply need to ask and they are more than welcome.
While I share Mr. Crispe’s concerns, I might take issue with one comment made by Mr. Crispe concerning elitists and “real Vermonters.” It doesn’t matter if people using our land are poor or wealthy or if they were born in Vermont or Timbuktu. What matters is that people using the land treat both it and the wildlife that live here with care and respect.
