Years ago, when I got discouraged trying to move to the country only to have the area gentrified, I realized that Vermont had just about everything I was looking for: enough land for horses, beautiful woods and trails, a sparse rural population, and enough culture and the arts to keep a city person satisfied. What I wanted more than anything was a place that offered safe haven for wildlife and native flora to flourish.
I was surprised to find out the year I moved here that I would be required to post my land every year to keep hunters off of it. That first year, I did so, using the deed map to find all the corners that constituted my property. I didn’t do a very good job and even posted a neighbor’s tree and got him riled up.
That initial effort was enough to keep me from posting ever again. It is arduous work, time-consuming, and although the posters were up, I’d have to do them all over again, pay the fee, buy the materials, sign the signs, etc., year in and year out. And in a short amount of time, wind and bad weather tore them down anyway.
Signs are also shot at and ripped down by people and when that happens, your land is no longer technically legally posted! Even as a 40-something, posting was just too hard, and I hoped that my posted land, although now out of date, would suffice to keep hunters off of it with respect for my posted wishes.
With each passing year, the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department (FWD) becomes more entrenched in its support of archaic laws regarding wildlife. The problems start at the top. When FWD Commissioner Jack Porter resigned last year, I hoped for a successor with modern values who would take animal ethics...