Wildlife

The quiet impact of Vermont’s Nongame Fund

Vermont hawkwatch counting sites saw fewer numbers for the broad-winged hawk population this year.

A conversation with Teage O’Connor

From Nov. 15-30, Vermont Fish and Wildlife will be collecting deer teeth from hunters to evaluate deer population management decisions.

Wildlife Day at the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area Visitor Center took place this year on Oct. 4 in Addison.

In May, the University of Vermont published research on a Monkton wildlife underpass that protects amphibians from vehicles. At the same time, a major crossing on Interstate-89 and Route 2 was retracted due to a lack of funding. 

Scientists say the fish are a reliable measure of lake and basin ecological health.

The Bobolink Project pays owners of fields, often farmers, to conduct bird-friendly practices. The birds get time and habitat to nest while the landowners get some compensation for letting them do so.

The Telephone Gap Integrated Resource project had a historic level of public engagement, according to advocates, before it passed in June.

Quebec’s first case since 2015 was found just a mile across the border from a rabid raccoon in Highgate.

When Canada geese molt their flying feathers in the summer, scientists see a key window to study and track them.

Walleye season started this month. Almost 5 million of the fish have been stocked in Vermont’s waters since 2009, the state says.

Pre-K students at the Tinmouth Mountain School are learning traditional lessons in outdoor, natural classrooms as part of the Mill River Unified Union School’s Trailhead Initiative.

Volunteers across Vermont gather to help herps traverse the roads. Most often, that entails people scooping critters into their hands and shuttling them to safety. 

Native plants provide the preferred food source, habitat and host for native birds and pollinators, as well as prevent invasive species from moving in.

The federal government matches every dollar donated to the program roughly threefold so that the $15 stamp purchase turns into $60.

Starting in 2027, builders will replace the floodgates with thicker, sturdier ones and swap out the bridge above the spillway.

“This event is a way to help people with a little bit more background to show them the tools and give them the opportunity to use the tools without having to purchase things and not know what’s going on,” staff said. 

Group members say weather patterns may have contributed to the huge uptick in sightings this year.

Following a population dip in the 1960s and 1970s, the muskellunge were seemingly wiped out after an untreated waste spill.

“The only way we know a lot of this stuff is because thousands of people have helped us collect data across the landscape,” one Vermont expert said.

“You can control a lot of things — but the one thing you can’t control is if the fish is gonna bite,” said the coach of last year’s state champs.

Another approach to addressing climate crisis in Vermont? One grounded in spirituality.

The mission is to reduce the distance pollinators like bees and butterflies must go to get nectar and pollen. The gardens, in effect, form a highway.

Close to 500 landowners have expressed interest in being paid around $300 an acre, dispersed over a 20-year period, for preserving forestland.

It has become increasingly more expensive to keep and repopulate his hives, the vetoed bill’s sponsor said, because colonies are dying at faster rates in recent years.

Part of the bill aimed to ban hunters from using dogs and bait — without a trappers’ license — to hunt coyotes in the state.

It’s a conundrum with many variables and few easy answers. As Murdoch put it, “What other tools do we have in our toolkit?”

The project has amassed 123,000 entries since its founding in 1994.

Researchers have concerns about the relation between the bald eagles’ rise and a receding blue heron population in the state.

With this winter’s relatively weak snowfall, more people may have turned to birding as an outdoor activity for the season.

Students from Windham Elementary School and Compass Middle School were tasked with the mushroom selection.

The bill would rebrand the board that sets rules for implementing Act 250.

The “Sounds Deep” exhibit, which is showing until March 9, is the vision of artist Arthur “Art” Costa and museum exhibition director Sarah Freeman.

Neonicotinoids are insecticides that coat plants’ seeds, so the toxins are taken up into a plant’s tissue as it grows.

The crowd included families with young children, experienced anglers, locals and visitors, all there for a day out on the ice.

The bill seeks to update the state endangered species list more frequently, establish critical habitat spaces, prohibit the sale of species and curtail rules that allow endangered animals to be taken from the land. 

If a business is culpable, H.614 allows police to seize any equipment it used for illegal activity. Furthermore, the bill increases fines and limits the logging activities of businesses with two or more outstanding fines or judgements.

Wind turbines are popping up across Vermont and beyond to answer demands for a more sustainable energy system, but they also threaten some of the animal species that live and fly around them. Wildlife Imaging Systems, based in Hinesburg, is striving to temper risks.

Quacking ducks, the baas of sheep and bleats of goats, horses snorting, pigs and turkeys roaming about — another day for the crew of rescued animals who live new lives in this haven off Lime Kiln Road.

For the last two years, a heated debate has swirled around the serene setting, stemming from the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to cut and harvest 690 acres of trees around the lake.

Invasive species are a big issue in Vermont, and the debates surrounding their management often center on another contentious issue — herbicides and pesticides.   

While a state game warden demonstrated a deer processing, kids and parents whittled away at wooden ducks around a table under the next tent over.

Virginia Barlow, Dave Mance, Amy Peberdy and Patrick White have worked together for decades now, creating and publishing the Northern Woodlands Magazine, a quarterly chronicle of the forests of the Northeast. For the past four years, however, they have dedicated themselves to something a little closer to home: the Vermont Almanac.

More than 50 years, a slew of roadblocks and $45 million later, the controversial Champlain Parkway is set to push forward along Burlington’s southern edge.

When it was introduced in the Legislature last year, a bill called S.201 proposed prohibiting the use of leg-hold traps in Vermont — rigs with metal pressure plates that, when stepped on, trigger spring-loaded claws to ensnare an animal’s leg.

With bear season starting Sept. 1, and rising reports of bear encounters in Vermont’s more urban areas like South Burlington, the state is faced with new discussions on how best to manage its bear population, if at all.

Goss said that this year is the only the second time ever that loons have been observed nesting on the reservoir.

A novel experiment at Shelburne Farms aims to enhance that process along Lake Champlain by using fungi.

As the state pushes toward its solar goals, what environmental questions must be examined?

When scientists detected a small, bug-eyed gray fish two years ago at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers in New York, it set off alarms everywhere along the waters of Lake Champlain.

Officials are cutting back how many lake trout are released annually into Lake Champlain after finding, for the first time in decades, sustained successful reproduction in the species — exciting news for biologists and anglers alike.

As part of an ongoing recovery project, wildlife officials have announced the annual closings of cliffs where peregrine falcons nest across Vermont.

Earlier this year, the Hinesburg Town Forest Committee learned that Lyman had gone into the town forest with heavy machinery and destroyed three beaver dams.

Underwater robots developed by Greensea in Richmond help militaries with underwater explosive disposal and maritime industries with ship streamlining.