As predator populations continue to grow in the State of Vermont there is an increased urgency for the states wildlife board to take a more active role in the management of their populations. Depredation of livestock, wildlife species such as whitetail deer, turkeys and even domesticated animals, is on the rise. The state needs to provide hunters with all the tools necessary to safely and effectively manage the coyote population to acceptable densities by allowing the use lights to hunt coyotes when they are most active at night.

Night hunting, as is currently permitted by state statute, is both difficult and extremely unsafe. Taking a shot on an animal in the dark, without being able to fully or properly identify your target or what is beyond it, is both unsafe and in violation of the very principals of safe hunting practices taught throughout our country. This sort of hunting practice currently allowed and promoted by the existing state Statute, poses an extreme danger to public safety and is likely ineffective from a management perspective. Waiting for a moonlight night, which is not fully or partially obscured by clouds, is often a frivolous endeavor. The use of night vision scopes that do not cast a beam are allowed, but are likely not financially feasible for most Vermonters. However, lights that mount to rifle scopes are readily available and in most cases inexpensive.

My proposal is to allow the use of lights for hunting predatory dogs at night modeled after Maine's statute of charging a nominal fee for a "night permit" in addition to one's regular hunting license. This permits the hunter to use lights while hunting predators all the while allowing the state to keep tabs on who is allowed to be using and possessing high power lights at night. Additionally my proposal would seek to limit the periods when night hunting with the use of lights is permitted to only those months when there is not a concurrent open big game season.

We all know the reasons for the prohibition of lights for hunting at night, but we also know dishonest hunters and unethical sportsmen and women are using them anyway and will continue to do so weather it is legal or not.

I urge all the sportsmen and women of Vermont to give serious consideration to this topic and please sign the petition!