Op-Ed: Wildlife governance needs to reflect modern attitudes, values

February 20, 2024  |  By Brenna Galdenzi

The values that the public holds toward wildlife can be broken out into four different categories: traditionalists, mutualists, pluralists and distanced. 

Traditionalists tend to view wildlife as resources for the taking, while mutualists seek coexistence and place greater value on protecting wildlife. Pluralists prioritize these two values differently depending on the specific context. Those that are distanced are largely uninterested. 

Results from a Vermont study “America's Wildlife Values,” conducted by Colorado State University, revealed that the highest percentage of Vermonters hold a mutualist perspective, followed by pluralist, with traditionalists being second to last.

Mutualists represent only 5% of the staff at the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife. Why is this important? Despite the reality that Vermonters' values toward wildlife have changed to want greater protections, the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department and board have remained stuck in the past. This has grave implications for the public, our shared wildlife, and conservation.

The voices of the public, including wildlife advocates, should matter. However, we have witnessed increased polarization spurred by the very state agency, the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department and its Board, which is tasked with protecting wildlife for the people of Vermont under Title 10 §4081. They continue to draw a political line in the sand and have attempted to discredit, demean, and demoralize the wildlife advocacy community and anyone who disagrees with their steadfast support of trapping. 

Despite Protect Our Wildlife representing thousands of Vermonters from Bloomfield to Brattleboro, including over 30,000 social media followers, the values of wildlife advocates continue to be devalued and disparaged. 

Vermont Fish & Wildlife staff were predominantly featured in a recent pro-trapping propaganda hit piece produced by a nonprofit trapping organization. Fish & Wildlife staff accused the very public — that they are statutorily required to serve — as lying and painted us unfairly as villains. We are biologists, teachers, mothers, fathers, and respectful members of the community who have tried desperately for years to collaborate and work with Fish & Wildlife leadership, only to be marginalized. We host educational events at schools, kids’ camps and libraries trying to fill some of the educational gaps that Fish & Wildlife has ignored, including addressing the gross misunderstanding toward coyotes that leads to wanton killing. We pride ourselves on being a fact-based, credible organization, yet the powerful state agency continues to use its bully pulpit to target all-volunteer, grassroots nonprofits whose members have differing values. 

Commissioner Chris Herrick routinely talks about the need to "follow the science," yet he has no background in the sciences. In the pro-trapping propaganda piece, he parroted scientifically unsupported claims about coyotes in his support of recreational trapping. His own employee, who oversees the trapping division, actually criticized some of the content in this pro-trapping piece for unnecessary fear-mongering and scare tactics (we only know this because we received access to this email through a public records request). But that did not stop Fish & Wildlife and our commissioner from still participating and spreading that fear-mongering. 

Why is it acceptable for this all-powerful state agency to continue operating like a private game club, especially given the fact that more and more of their budget comes from the General Fund that we all pay into? License fees have declined significantly, but Fish & Wildlife still refuses to open up the door to the club to those who might otherwise be interested in partnering and helping to augment their funding. Why did it take an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization to sue Fish & Wildlife for its failure to meet legislative mandates? Never before has Fish & Wildlife been sued over rule-making, but they must be held accountable to the legislature and to the people.

The legislature is aware of changing wildlife values and the need to modernize this broken system of wildlife governance by updating antiquated and ecologically unsound statutes and also instituting measures to promote diversity, inclusion and better democracy. It may take years before we see a properly functioning Fish & Wildlife Department that respects all members of the public and does more than pay lip service. But we have to start somewhere. And the time is now with Senate bill S.258.

Brenna Galdenzi of Stowe is president and co-founder of the nonprofit animal welfare organization Protect Our Wildlife.