Decline in deer hearings troubles board

By law, the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department must hold five deer hearings every spring. These hearings give Vermonters the opportunity to listen to biologists explain the status of the deer herd in Vermont and then give feedback on what they have heard.

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Photo by Dennis Jensen Fish & Wildlife Commissioner Louis Porter addresses a group of deer hunters during a deer hearing held in Castleton in March. Only 18 people showed up for a deer hearing in Springfield last week, much to the dismay of one member of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Board. Published May 15, 2016 in the Rutland Herald Jensen Afield: Decline in deer hearings troubles board By law, the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department must hold five deer hearings every spring. These hearings give Vermonters the opportunity to listen to biologists explain the status of the deer herd in Vermont and then give feedback on what they have heard. But something has happened at these hearings; actually, it comes down to the fact that something isn’t happening. People are not attending the hearings as they did in years past. While attendance at the Rutland hearing in late March was respectable with about 50 people showing up, the hearing in Springfield the other night saw only 18 in attendance. In years past, upwards of 75, 100 or more people showed up for the deer hearings and, sometimes, the deer talk could become quite heated. There must be a number of reasons why attendance has dropped, including fewer deer hunters, the growing number of aging deer hunters, fewer youths taking up the sport, a law against shooting spiked bucks and who knows what else? I happened to attend the deer hearing in Castleton, where about 50 people were in attendance. It was informative and lively, but the most revealing aspect of the hearing was the number of gray hairs in attendance. Very few youngsters, or young men, for that matter, attended. I did not make the meeting in Springfield, held earlier this week, but Justin Lindholm, the Rutland County representative on the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Board, was there and offered some interesting observations about what appears to be a declining interest in these hearings among the general hunting public. Lindholm said he has attended deer hearings in Springfield for about 10 years and was surprised by what he observed. Six members of the Fish & Wildlife Board showed up, as well as representatives for the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. “That’s the fewest number of people I’ve seen so far,” he said. “There were no young people. I don’t know if people have given up on the idea of having any influence, or what has happened.” The five deer hearings are intended to explain to hunters how the previous four deer seasons in 2015 went, to give the public projections on the coming deer seasons and to allow those in attendance to speak up about their concerns regarding the deer herd. In Springfield, where the number of people showing up at a hearing is almost even with those who are there to represent the deer hunting population (biologists, game wardens, board members), you know there is a problem. Lindholm, a thoughtful, involved board member who will have attended the five deer hearings held around the state, said there could be any number of reasons for what is clearly a drop in interest in the future of deer hunting in Vermont. “I think some people are dropping out of hunting. Other people think they don’t have any influence on the department so they don’t show up. But I get plenty of people talking to me about deer — but they don’t show up for the meetings,” he said. “In Montpelier, only 35 showed up. In Orleans County we had 60 and about 50 in Castleton and 18 in Springfield,” he said. “If you add up all of those meetings (another deer hearing was set in St. Albans late last week) it was far less than what we used to see in Rutland when we would sometimes have 200 people.” In 2004, when the spike-horn ban was first being kicked around, more than 600 people attended a deer hearing in Rutland. While interest in deer hearings is on the decline, Vermont’s deer herd is on the increase. Nick Fortin, the deer team leader for Fish & Wildlife, estimated the Vermont deer population at between 140,000 and 145,000 prior to the start of the 2016 deer season. The department believes one solution for keeping the deer herd in check is by issuing antlerless deer permits for the December muzzleloader season. The Fish & Wildlife Department has proposed issuing 19,150 antlerless permits (also called doe permits), a 98-percent increase in the 9,650 permits issued in 2015. Fish & Wildlife is responding to an increase in the deer herd after one of the mildest winters on record, and sees those permits as a way to keep the deer herd numbers in check. “If the number of hunters continues to decline,” Lindholm said, “it will not matter how many antlerless permits Fish & Wildlife decides to hand out.” Lindholm also said he believes that those antlerless permits will have little impact on the deer population because too much land is posted in Vermont, particularly in Wildlife Management Areas K and N, making up much of Rutland and Bennington Counties. The department wants to issue 4,100 permits in WMA K and 2,100 permits in WMA N. While the number of permits will increase a good deal in WMA K and slightly more for WMA N, it won’t matter, in terms of the antlerless kill, Lindholm said. “I’ll tell you why,” he said. “The success rate in K and N is the lowest of all the zones in the state. I talked that over with Fortin. We have come to the conclusion that the success rate is so low because people who get a permit cannot get on posted land.” Ultimately, Lindholm said, the Vermont Legislature will have to deal with the problem of posted land. One solution, he said, would be to look at Vermont’s Land Use Program. Under the program, the state helps the landowner by subsidizing taxes on the land under forestry practices and if they keep the land undeveloped. But under the program, landowners can post their land against hunting. Lindholm said that since landowners get a financial break from the state, they should not be allowed to post their land. Lindholm said he plans to go before the Legislature to deal with the land use situation in its next session. “I’m going to start hounding them,” he said. “You could give out 10,000 permits in K and N and it wouldn’t make a difference. If you can’t get on posed land, you can’t get a deer.” But Lindholm said talking to lawmakers in Montpelier is one thing; getting them to respond is quite another. “It’s a hard place to get things done,” he said. http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20160515/FEATURES02/160519663