Hunting/trapping supporters showed up at the State House. Bill supporters, not so much
By Guy Page
The long-predicted demise of the latest legislative effort to wrest control of the Fish & Wildlife Board out of the hands of hunters finally happened Thursday, when the House Environment & Energy Committee decided to not vote out to the House floor the controversial hunting bill, S.258.
The bill would have taken hunting, fishing and trapping rulemaking authority away from the appointed Fish & Wildlife Board and given it to the Department of Fish & Wildlife. It was the brainchild of Sen. Chris Bray (D-Addison), written after a legislative rules committee last year lost its battle to get the Fish & Wildlife Board to impose stricter trapping regulations.
In addition to the rule-making switch, the bill would have banned coyote hunting with dogs and live bait.
S.258 has “passed away,” committee member Rep. Brian Smith, R-Orleans-1, told the Caledonian-Record. The end came after the committee took days of testimony on the bill.
Legislators opposing S.258 said that with the Supermajority under fire over school spending, renewable power bills adding to homeowner energy costs, and and its half-hearted efforts to solve the housing shortage crisis, many lawmakers didn’t want “to make S.258 their hill to die on,” in the words of one Republican state senator.
S.258 supporters say non-hunting wildlife lovers are on the rise, especially with the Covid-19-related influx of urban northeasterners to Vermont. If so, it didn’t translate into large numbers of people showing up at the State House. Their press conferences were thinly attended. On the other hand, powerful in-person advocacy by sportsmen – including repeated visits by large groups of camo-clad Vermonters to the State House cafeteria – played a large role in defeating S.258, Smith said.
“I think the majority (of Democrats) didn’t want to take it up in an election year with all the sportsmen voters out there defending Vermont traditions,” said Rep. Smith, of Derby. The lifelong hunter didn’t support the bill.
S.258 passed the Senate with a veto-proof majority, but only after last-minute amendments by Bray diluted its two main goals: taking rule-making power from the governor and the Fish & Wildlife Board, and banning or severely restricting trapping.
It’ll be back next year – Advocates for S.258 will try again next year, said one of its supporters and a frequent VDC commenter, Kathleen Gaffney. “As I’m sure you already know, and it will eventually be reworked & introduced again,” she emailed VDC yesterday.