Vermont Traditions Coalition (VTC)
Legislative Report
(What happened and how it will affect you!)
Working to protect our cultural heritage
A full-time, professional, paid presence in the halls of government protecting Vermont's sporting, snowmobile, forestry, and other traditional interests today, tomorrow, and forever.
Fishing, Hunting and Trapping Policies
VTC has always advocated for the value of sportsmen and women, but that advocacy has become even more crucial in the last few years. With national and international anti-hunting groups being supported by several small pop-up anti-hunting groups in Vermont, attempts are constantly being made to remove or reduce opportunities for hunters, trappers, and even anglers. Likewise, there is a constant push to re-configure the Fish and Wildlife Board to favor the anti-hunting crowd, end predator hunting, end the use of hunting dogs, and end trapping. If you love going afield, you need to support us in the fight against this insidious movement. 
VTC Advocates For Healthy Forests and Working Lands
Managed forests with sufficient openings, regrowth, and access are critical components of healthy ecosystems, creating healthier forests, healthier and more abundant wildlife, and a more vibrant economy.
VTC includes several forestry organizations that are dedicated to keeping forests as forests by making the timber industry, a crucial piece of Vermont's rural economy, as healthy and profitable as possible. Keeping farms as farms creates similar benefits, and our timber industry can help facilitate that as well by providing additional income for agricultural landowners preserving the rural Vermont we all love. |
Motorized Recreation
VTC has long championed the need to maintain access and trail systems for this important part of Vermont’s rural economy. If you ride, VTC has fought for you. Motorized recreation is a significant part of both our economy, and many of our connections to the landscape, but the threat of trail closures is ever present. VTC is proud to count many local and county snowmobile clubs among our member groups. 
Access to Private and Public Lands
VTC reads, analyzes, and provides input on management plans drafted for all state and federal public lands and resources with an eye to public access and use, proper management, and sustainability. We also consult on local issues of interest to sporting enthusiasts.
If you’re a snowmobiler, hunter, trapper, angler, or have any other interest in our public lands, VTC has been looking out for you. With the growing push to remove people from the landscape, this is not only the original issue VTC addressed, but a growing issue. |
“Champion woke me up. First, they took over the land, then they came for our jobs and then they came for our camps. All of this left me wondering, when they come for me, will I be standing all by myself.”
ANONYMOUS,
Citizens Advisory Committee 01
Island Pond, VT
ANONYMOUS,
Citizens Advisory Committee 01
Island Pond, VT
First Let'sSupport
Meeting at Champion Lands
Who Is VTC?
Vermont Traditions Coalition is a group of over 20 traditional land use organizations from throughout Vermont that formed in 2001 in response to the threatened loss of traditional uses posed by the sale of the Northeast Kingdom’s 135,000-acre Champion lands. This exchange threatened to remove Vermonters with a deep connection to and love of these lands from being able to access them.Today, sportsmen and women, snowmobile clubs, outdoor guides, camp and lake association groups, pet owners, foresters, loggers, and other conservationists work together to use all of our collective power and resources to fight, as one, to protect all of our traditions wherever they are threatened statewide. These ongoing threats mean that we need to maintain a strong voice in state government. Those opposed to this landscape-based lifestyle have exploded onto the state government scene, and traditional rural interests must keep pace or we face losing the Vermont we all know and love.Since 2015, we’ve seen an unprecedented attack on hunting and trapping which has been distinct in its open attacks upon not only the sporting community as a whole, but individuals. Their willingness to use vitriol, propaganda, and public shaming in attempts to coerce legislators into opposing scientific wildlife management is an outrage. VTC has been there with a rational presence and knowledgeable testimony to oppose them and advocate for better opportunities. Contact Us Phone: (802) 461-3786 Email: [email protected] Web: vermonttraditions.org |
Now let's WORKAdvocate
Gathering at the VT Statehouse
Get Involved!
Since 2001, VTC has been committed to keeping two full-time, year-round paid professionals in the halls of government looking out for the Vermont's rural values. In addition, VTC has developed a statewide network of thousands of volunteers to not only protect our traditions but advance them to the highest levels of government. VTC plays a lead role in protecting all that we cherish about Vermont, and each year our efforts attract more support. Government changes continually and VTC is there to respond, but VTC’s leaders cannot do this alone. The need for VTC continues day after day, year after year. To survive and thrive, VTC needs your help. Please keep VTC fighting for you! Support VTC with your financial pledge, your time, and your voice. When the call for action is raised, vote, make that phone call, send that email, and get on our mailing list at: [email protected] Those with no regard for our lifestyle never rest. Neither Can We!! |
IT'S UP TO USChange
Protect Vermont Traditions
Your Voice Matters!
With the shift in Vermont from folks who were raised here with traditional values and interests, to a more urban and electronic society, some communities are becoming detached from our connections to the land. This makes our advocacy ever more important to protect Vermont's rural character, and through that it's rural economy. With snow sports and hunting/trapping/shooting being the state's two strongest outdoor recreational categories, and fishing following close behind, our areas of advocacy are major economic drivers for Vermont's rural economy. Vermont ranks fourth in the nation for our reliance on the outdoor recreation economy. This, coupled with the economic and conservation values provided by a robust Forest Products community, crystallize the importance of our work even beyond its intrinsic cultural value. |
Oppose Destruction of Vermont's Ridgelines