This commentary is by Sarah Gorsline of Grande Isle. She is a Vermont representative for the science-based nonprofit Project Coyote, whose mission is to promote compassionate conservation and coexistence between people and wildlife through education, science and advocacy.
It’s an exciting time for wildlife governance reform in Vermont, presenting the opportunity to make wildlife management more democratic, compassionate and responsive to the biodiversity and climate crises. A new bill introduced in the Vermont legislature by Senators Bray, Hardy, McCormack and White — S.258 — has the potential to make Vermont a leader in science-based, ethical wildlife management in the United States. This bill would shift rulemaking authority from the Board of Fish & Wildlife to the Department of Fish & Wildlife. The Board currently consists of 14 members from counties throughout the state, appointed for 6-year terms by Governor Scott in a private process. There’s no requirement that Board members have training in biology, ecology or conservation, and they oversee all wildlife rulemaking. To date, wildlife rules created by the Board have satisfied the interests of those with hunting licenses, but don’t address the requests of Vermonters who are non-license holders, and those with science-based ecosystem concerns. S.258 would also ban two of the most problematic coyote hunting practices: hunting with hounds and use of bait to hunt coyotes, both of which raise significant public safety concerns.
I’m a Vermonter whose family has roots in the state dating back over a century in Windsor County. I also represent the science-based nonprofit Project Coyote in Vermont. We support the right of all Vermonters to hunt for food in a fair chase and humane manner. What we do not support are practices with no basis in modern ecosystem management: hound hunting, wildlife killing contests, trapping, and the indiscriminate removal of predators: bears, coyotes, wolves, fox, bobcat and fisher, who are critical Ecosystem Allies and help manage the health of Vermont ecosystems through what scientists call “trophic cascades.” Trophic cascades are powerful indirect interactions that can regulate entire ecosystems and occur when top predators limit the density and/or behavior of their prey. Contrary to what some claim, coyotes and other predators don’t explode in population if they’re not aggressively removed. Rather, carnivores are self-regulating and adjust their population based on available territory, interactions with other species and food resources.
Coyotes are a great example: when aggressively hunted, studies show that their populations can actually increase, due to increased litter size under pressured conditions, and due to juvenile coyotes, upon disruption of their social structure, dispersing out of their known territory and finding new mates to reproduce. Scientific studies show that juvenile predators who are orphaned tend to predate on farmers’ livestock more than predators in areas with limited removal. Contrary to what some people say, coyotes are not an “invasive species,” they’re an apex predator who in Vermont are filling the space created by the historic removal of Eastern wolves.
Hunting doesn’t reduce human-wildlife conflicts, and should not be confused with “hazing,” a deterrence technique used to frighten off wildlife to cause wariness. Use of bait in hunting – which S.258 would ban for coyote hunting — creates the conditions for increased human-wildlife conflict by drawing wildlife out of the wilderness into human-cultivated spaces. In November 2023 a family’s dog was killed in Dummerston when a hunter shot at the dog from his house, thinking the dog was a coyote approaching his bait pile. This followed 2 other incidents in 2022 of dogs being shot over bait piles by hunters mistaking them for coyotes, in Barre and Tunbridge. Just like trapping, bait creates the conditions for collateral damage.
In my work advocating for wildlife, and in my discussions with trappers, hound hunters, Vermont Fish & Wildlife biologists and staff, I find that the question “Why?” is not asked often enough. Humans are incredibly effective predators, and technology allows us to eliminate any skill and chase from a hunt. But why are we removing critical predators from the landscape in the first place? These animals all have a purpose, whether regulating species numbers, dispersing seeds in their scat, or reducing rodent populations which controls the prevalence of diseases like Lyme disease.
We’re living in a time of mass species extinction, a biodiversity crisis and climate crises. As their website states, Vermont Fish & Wildlife is entrusted with managing wildlife, plants and habitats for all residents, including generations of Vermonters into the future. That’s why S.258 would be a helpful corrective, democratizing the Board through a new appointment process, requiring training for board members, license holders and non-license holders alike, in science-based ecosystem management, and shifting rulemaking to the trained scientists at Vermont Fish & Wildlife, who need to step up to the responsibility they hold to protect wildlife for all, not just license-holder interest groups.
Please join me and fellow Vermonters in reaching out to your local Senators in support of S.258, to make Vermont a leader in science-based wildlife policy.
