The Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife is proposing changes to a slate of hunting regulations, including for white-tailed deer, moose and turkey. The agency is also proposing updates to its rules around transporting wild game meat into the state.
The changes were put forward by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board — a 14-member panel appointed by the governor, which has the final say for regulations for hunting, fishing and trapping — with support from agency biologists.
The most substantive changes are to the state’s deer hunting regulations, which were last updated in 2020. The proposal includes allowing hunters to use rifles and shotguns to kill antlerless deer, primarily females or does, during the regular fall season. Currently, that is only allowed for bucks.
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Nick Fortin, a wildlife biologist and deer project leader for the agency, characterized the bulk of the updates as “minor.” That includes things like moving youth deer hunting weekend back to the weekend prior to the start of the regular season in November and expanding where deer can be hunted during archery season in some places.
But, he said, in order to have a healthy and sustainable deer population and support hunters, the agency is hoping to expand the pool for hunters taking female deer.
“Under our current regulations, we cannot harvest enough antlerless deer each year to control the deer population in some areas,” Fortin said.
In some parts of the state — including the Champlain Valley and much of western Vermont — Fortin said there are too many antlerless deer. Overpopulation can harm local ecosystems if certain tree species in the understory are overeaten. It can also decrease genetic diversity in the deer population. Historically, cold winters would kill more deer than hunters, but due to climate change more deer are surviving the winter.
Fortin said hunting antlerless deer during the regular season has not been allowed in Vermont since the ‘80s, and it bucks long-established culture. Buck-only hunting has been the norm in Vermont since 1897. Older hunters may remember when Vermont’s deer population was smaller and conventional knowledge was to leave female deer. Fortin said, from a management perspective, Vermonters need to move beyond that practice.
“We simply do not have enough muzzleloader hunters to take all of the antlerless permits we would need to issue,” he said. “So this proposal, and allowing these permits to be used, not only during our muzzleloader seasons, but also during our regular season, opens it up to a lot more hunters.”
The agency estimates that between 20,000 and 25,000 hunters only hunt during the regular season.
“They currently have no way to kill antlerless deer under our current laws,” Fortin said. “So we're opening the opportunity up to them, and that allows us in these areas where we're struggling to take enough deer, suddenly, now we have this much bigger pool of hunters that we can give permits to.”
The proposal also calls for opening up the regular season to archers.
Alex Smith, a member of the leadership team for the Vermont Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, said the group supports the state in its efforts to manage the deer population using science-based management practices.
“We're very much in support of the state's efforts to lower deer numbers in those areas,” he said. “Something like expanding an archery season — which is very safe to the other people in the area and so on — in those areas, we feel, and I feel, is a really great idea.”
The agency is also proposing allowing some hunters to take a second buck.
For moose hunting regulations, Fish and Wildlife is proposing extending the hunting season from six to nine days and allowing some hunters to choose to hunt with a gun during archery season. The proposed updates to turkey regulations would expand the fall archery season to the start of October.
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The agency is also proposing updating existing regulations on bringing wild game meat from deer and elk harvested out of state into Vermont to also apply to moose and other species in the deer family as well.
If approved, the proposed changes to deer and turkey hunting regulations and meat transport rules would take effect in 2026. Moose hunting regulation updates would begin between fall 2025 and 2026.
The agency is seeking feedback from the public through May 25. You can email ANR.FWPublicComment@vermont.gov or attend a public meeting.
The meetings, which all start at 6:30 p.m., will take place at five locations around the state:
- March 17, Mount Anthony Union High School, 301 Park St., Bennington
- March 18, Lakes Region High School, 317 Lakes Region Rd., Orleans
- March 20, Union 32 Middle & High School, 930 Gallison Hill Rd., Montpelier
- May 6, Winooski Middle and High School, 60 Normand St., Winooski
- A fifth public hearing in southern Vermont will be scheduled for early May and announced in the coming weeks on the board’s website under “Public Hearings.”
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