Last year, Protect Our Wildlife (POW) launched a statewide Living With Wildlife campaign to help towns pursue nonlethal methods to address human/wildlife conflicts.
In Vermont, countless wild animals, including beavers, foxes, raccoons, and others, are killed under a dangerously vague statute that allows landowners and municipalities to kill wildlife that's merely suspected to cause damage to property. No reporting is required, so our state's own Fish and Wildlife Department has little to no data on how many animals are killed.
The good news: POW recently partnered with the town of Marlboro to help prevent beavers from becoming trapped in leghold and body-gripping traps, while also preventing beaver-related flooding and subsequent road damage.
With grant funding, POW provided financial support to install three culvert protective water-flow devices, called Beaver Deceivers, on Grant Road. This site is one of three that the town will have protected with such devices to save the wetlands and maintain these rich ecosystems for beavers and many other species of wildlife.
A passionate and persistent coalition of landowners, biologists, farmers, hunters, wildlife enthusiasts, and others overcame opposition from paid lobbyists and Vermont's own Fish and Wildlife Department to ban coyote-killing contests for prizes. Vermont will be only the second state in the country to do so, thanks to the successful...