Salisbury fish hatchery closing looms

To the dismay of some anglers, state officials have proposed a plan to close a historic Vermont fish hatchery in Salisbury to cut costs within the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. 

In the days and months after the July floods that devastated much of Vermont, Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux’s inbox filled with requests. 

The bill would mandate that Vermonters pay for their heating sources’ impact on climate change, but rulemaking would take two years.

After losing their income during the COVID-19 pandemic, selling their former farm sanctuary in Benson and starting over in Middlebury this year, Erika and Mark Butel felt like they finally had their feet on the ground. 

A new program announced last week will add to a suite of incentives available to Vermonters who want to weatherproof their homes. 

The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board is offering grants as large as $40,000 to farmers for projects that help protect water quality.

State regulators are on the cusp of adopting a rule that would push Vermont’s market for new passenger cars to all-electric in a little more than a decade.

In Vermont, 45 species of lady beetles have been identified, including 36 native species, but 12 have been missing from the state since the 1970s.

Phil Scott has vetoed a bill that would have updated Act 250, Vermont’s broad land use and development law, over concerns that it would impede efforts to alleviate the state’s severe housing crisis.

Gov. Phil Scott on Friday vetoed the clean heat standard, which is widely viewed as the largest climate change bill of the session.

Legislators in the state’s Senate Committee on Agriculture are discussing a bill that would limit the types of nuisance suits property owners can bring against farms.

Vermont farmers who are working to reduce phosphorus pollution from their fields into local water bodies will soon be eligible for a new kind of compensation.

Horizon Organic, which plans to stop taking milk from Northeast producers, has announced it will extend contracts by six months, giving farmers more time to find new markets.

Vermont will receive $63 million in the 2022 fiscal year from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for water infrastructure, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced Dec. 2.

The Hescocks, who milk 325 cows at their Shoreham farm, have been producing for Horizon since 1999. It’s been about a month since they received the letter, and they don’t know what their future holds, or whether they’ll be able to continue farming at all.