BERLIN, Vt. -
With hunting season right around the corner, some people living near the Berlin pond are concerned with hunters gaming so close to their homes. Monday, the town select board held a meeting with the Vermont Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife to see if there were ways to regulate not only hunting of waterfowl but also ice fishing in the winter months.
There was a mix of opinions at Monday night's Berlin Select Board meeting.
"How are you going to prevent people from getting hurt if you've got guns firing at people from every direction?" asked a concerned woman who frequently walks near the pond.
"Well your assuming that guns will be firing over the road or at people," responded Patrick Berry, Vermont Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife.
"I'm making the assumption guns are shooting wherever," the woman responded.
Some residents are concerned with hunters shooting on Berlin pond but Commissioner Patrick Berry doesn't feel any lives are in danger, "I think there are lot of preconceived notions and misinformation about what the potential impacts would be, that really aren't based on a whole lot of information."
I spoke with the Berlin Town Administrator, Jeff Schulz, before the meeting who says it's not just
duck hunting but ice fishing and the concern of shanties and spills that have some on
edge, "There's concern because that is a water supply, it's probably not appropriate to have folks out on the pond."
Yet, Commissioner Berry says that is not a health concern, "If folks are looking for a safety reason, a biological impact, an ecological impact, to prohibit lawful uses of the pond, for hunting, fishing, wildlife watching, they just don't exist."
While the meeting was intended to come up with ways to regulate recreational use on the pond,
Commissioner Berry says, "We just don't have really the kind of conflicts that I think people are expecting will happen."
Vermont is one of a few states that guarantee the right to hunt and fish by state constitution and the commissioner noted that people generally work together and find a way to share the state's natural resources.
