Vermont Free Hunting and Fishing License for a Disabled Veteran

Title 10, section 4255(c)(4) gives a free license to a Vermont resident who is a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces and who is, or ever has been, 60 percent disabled as a result of a service-connected disability, on presentation of a certificate from the veterans' administration so certifying. Read "or ever has been" carefully, because it is the most useful clause in Vermont's recreation statutes and no summary carries it. Eligibility is not lost when a rating is reduced. A veteran who was rated 60 percent in 2004 and is rated 30 percent today still qualifies. The test is whether the rating ever reached 60, and the evidence is a VA certificate, which can document a past rating as well as a current one. Sixty percent is also an unusual threshold. Most states in this catalog put their sportsman benefits at a total and permanent rating or at 100 percent; Maine uses 50; Vermont sits between them. VetTOC enforces the 60 percent floor on the current rating, so a veteran filtering at a lower rating will not see this entry even if they once held 60. That is a limitation of the filter, not of the statute. What the license covers is more than the name suggests. The free license is a fishing, hunting, or combination hunting and fishing license that shall include all big game licenses, except for a moose license. At the 2026 resident fee schedule that means the archery license, the muzzle loader license, the turkey license, the bear tag, and the additional deer archery tag come with it, none of which are included in an ordinary $47 combination license. The moose exclusion is deliberate and it interacts with the other Vermont veteran hunting benefit. A disabled veteran who wins one of the six annual moose permits set aside for veterans under section 4254(i)(2) still has to buy the $100 resident moose license, because the free license does not include it. There is a reciprocal route for nonresidents. A resident of a state that provides a reciprocal privilege for Vermont veterans, and who would qualify under this subdivision if they were a Vermont resident, may receive a free one-year fishing, hunting, or combination license. For a Vermont resident the license is issued out of the permanent and free license provision in subsection (c); for the nonresident the statute says one-year in terms. One textual wrinkle to know before assuming the license never expires. Subsection (c) opens "A permanent or free license may be secured", and the subdivisions for a blind person, a person with paraplegia, and a recognized tribal citizen each say "permanent" expressly. The veteran subdivision says "free" without saying "permanent". The Department issues it as a permanent license, and subdivision (c)(6) requires a permanent license holder to notify the Department in each year they intend to hunt, trap, or fish, with no points assessed for failing to do so. Make that annual notification whatever the paperwork calls the license. Hunter education still applies. A first-time hunting license needs a certificate of satisfactory completion of a Vermont hunter safety course or an approved equivalent, or a previously held hunting license from any state or Canadian province. Trapping is not included in the free veteran license. A trapping license is a separate $23 resident license under section 4255(a)(5).