Hunter education courses offered

If you or someone you know would like to go hunting this fall but have never taken a hunter education course, this is the time to act: Vermont’s volunteer hunter education instructors are now holding a limited number of courses throughout the state.

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department has announced the 2022-2023 migratory game bird hunting season dates and bag limits.

Three new hunting or trapping related laws passed by the Vermont Legislature during the 2022 session are going into effect.

The muzzleloader seasons on Oct. 27-30 and Dec. 3-11 will have antlerless permits available for 19 of Vermont’s 21 Wildlife Management Units. Landowners who post their land may not apply for a landowner priority muzzleloader antlerless deer permit.

Hunting safely during Vermont’s May 1-31 turkey season is easy if you follow tips issued by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. 

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board voted to have 60 either-sex moose hunting permits and 40 antlerless moose hunting permits available this year.

If you or someone you know would like to go turkey hunting this spring, but they have never taken a hunter education course, this is the time to act.

If you live in Vermont and have been here for less than 55 years, you do not know what Vermont looks like without coyotes.

Although not many hunters were happy after December’s deer muzzleloader and archery seasons, overall 2021 remains the fifth most productive year for deer hunting in Addison County since 2005.

Last Thursday’s paper had an exceptional photo of Dorothy Muzzy with her 9-pointer, which she landed on the last day of hunting season. What the photo does not show is the phone call she made just a few days later.

The county’s rifle deer season fell short of setting a third straight record for number of bucks taken to local reporting stations, but plenty of venison was served or packed into freezers between Nov. 13 and 28.

Young and first-time hunters combined to bring 121 deer to Addison County’s seven wildlife reporting stations after going out during Youth Hunting Weekend on Oct. 23 and 24.

Local hunters once again in 2021 took advantage of the Department of Fish & Wildlife’s October-November archery and October muzzleloader seasons, bringing in 269 deer to be weighed at one of Addison County’s seven wildlife reporting stations.

Once again, the region’s deer hunters appear to have gotten off to a successful start in 2021, although it looks like they might not be on a pace to set a record annual harvest for the fourth straight season.

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is asking hunters for help in a statewide initiative to gather more biological data on the state’s deer population.