Vermont Moose Permit Set-Aside for Veterans

Title 10, section 4254(i)(2) directs that if the Fish and Wildlife Board establishes a moose hunting season, the Commissioner shall set aside not more than ten percent of the total number of annual moose permits authorized by the Board for Vermont residents who have served on active duty in any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, provided they have not received a dishonorable discharge. The total set aside for veterans shall not exceed six. The gate is the loosest of any Vermont recreation benefit. Active duty in any branch and the absence of a dishonorable discharge. No disability rating, no wartime period, no minimum length of service, and no honorable characterization required: a general or other than honorable discharge is not a dishonorable one. The rating filter never hides this entry. A veteran awarded a permit must still hold a valid Vermont hunting license or combination license in order to purchase the moose permit. This is where the free disabled veteran license in this catalog stops short: that license covers every big game license except moose, so a veteran with a set-aside permit still pays the $100 resident moose license fee. The hunting license itself is free to a 60 percent veteran. Section 4254(i)(3) requires the Department to adopt a procedure for the set-aside that includes a method of awarding applicants bonus points and a method by which veterans who applied for but failed to receive a permit in one season are given priority in the next. Applying in a year you do not draw is not wasted, and the procedure may freeze bonus points in a year when the Board approves no season or a small number of permits. The Department of Fish and Wildlife is required to coordinate with the Office of Veterans Affairs to give notice of the set-aside to eligible veterans, which is the practical reason to make sure the Office has your address. The set-aside sits alongside a separate auction of up to six permits under section 4254(i)(1), with a minimum bid the Commissioner may set at not less than $1,500. The veteran set-aside is not an auction and costs nothing beyond the ordinary lottery entry fee, which is $10 for a resident. The whole thing is conditional on the Board establishing a season at all. Vermont has run seasons with very small permit numbers and has held none in some years, and in those years there is nothing to set aside.