Legislative
Your Voice for Trails in the Statehouse
VTGC represents trail organizations in the statehouse and helps shape the conversation and future of outdoor recreation in Vermont. The breadth and diversity of our membership empowers discussions that help lawmakers make difficult land use and recreation decisions.
Why get involved?
Members provide key input
Nothing motivates elected officials or government administrators as much as receiving authentic, real-life input from their constituents. Our member voices are critical to our ability to advocate for sustainable funding to improve Vermont’s trails and to create accessible, inclusive, and sustainable outdoor recreation opportunities across the State. Your experience in creating, maintaining, and protecting trail assets gives you a critically valuable perspective.
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Become a Member
If you’re passionate about current policy or an outdoor recreation issue, we encourage you to become a member of the Vermont Trails and Greenways Council. There are many opportunities to become involved and your participation has a tremendous effect on legislative and rule-making outcomes. We will update this page throughout the 2025 legislative session and reach out to stakeholders through our communication channels.
2026 VTGC Legislative Platform
The Vermont Trails and Greenways Council (VTGC) is an independent nonprofit organization that works to support Vermont’s trails and outdoor recreation community and officially serves as an advisory body to the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) through the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (FPR). Our primary mission is to ensure access to the trails and landscape of Vermont for all who live and visit here. This mission is driven by a commitment to trails as critical infrastructure for Vermont communities to ensure better health, sustainable economies, and an increased commitment to conservation.
VTGC’s current membership includes 30+ organizations responsible for mobilizing more than 100,000 volunteer hours, maintaining over 70% of our public trails, and providing the natural infrastructure for the outdoor recreation economy, which provides more than 50,000 jobs across the state of Vermont.
VTGC Long-Term Policy Goals
- Secure stable, consistent, and flexible funding for trail-based recreation, including support for the VOREC Community Grant program and for ongoing stewardship
- More effectively recognize and reward landowners who host high-quality, public-access trails, securing access to the 70+% of trails on private land and incentivizing new landowners to support our outdoor recreation economy
- Foster a complete, comprehensive, and quantitative understanding of the benefits trail-based recreation provides to Vermont, including those that improve public health, local economies, and conservation outcomes
- Improve the regulatory environment for trails to remove ineffective and onerous barriers to sustainable trail construction and incentivize high-quality, low-impact trails statewide
- Ensure trail-based recreation is fully and effectively leveraged as designated purpose and effective tool for permanent land conservation, including achieving Vermont’s 30×30 and 50×50 conservation goals
2026 Legislative & Policy Priorities
- Communicate the benefits of prior investments in trail-based recreation, specifically but not limited to the VOREC Community Grant program
- Engage the administration on current and long-term interest in supporting VOREC and the VOREC Community Grant Program
- Leverage the Recreation Access Recognition legislation (H.147 and S.79) currently in committee to a) better estimate the economic impact of public-access trails hosted on private land, and b) catalogue landowners’ motivations, concerns, and the implications/repercussions of specific policy outcomes (e.g. impacts on Limited Landowner Liability)
- Develop a scope of work for a modern economic and social impact assessment for trails in Vermont and pursue external (non-public) funding to contract the work
- Retain the status quo of Act 250 regulations for trails under Rule 71 and prevent the establishment of new triggers for Act 250 permitting for trails under Tier 3 rulemaking
- See trails effectively woven into the forthcoming Vermont Conservation Plan, both as a desired outcome of land conservation and as a tool to secure land for other primary purposes
2026 Activities
The VTGC pursues the goals above through the following activities:
- Cultivate relationships with legislative champions who can help inform our efforts, author legislation, and rally support for Council priorities
- Coordinate and provide testimony throughout the legislative session
- Gather impact stories from VOREC Community Grant recipients and integrate into advocacy materials
- Regular weekly meetings of our Legislative & Policy Committee, open to VTGC Members
- Active monitoring of relevant legislation, rulemaking, and other policy development
- Co-hosting the third annual Outdoor Recreation Day at the Statehouse, scheduled for 2/5/26
- Participation on the Vermont Conservation Plan Technical Advisory Committee
- Coordination with other key outdoor recreation stakeholders, including VOREC, ANR/FPR, the Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance, the Vermont Ski Area Association, and the Vermont Recreation and Parks Association
Contact Us to Learn More:
Nick Bennette, VTGC Chair, nick@vmba.org
30 x 30 and the Vermont Conservation Plan
Many Vermonters are aware that Vermont has a legal mandate to conserve 30% of the state by 2030, a requirement set in place in 2023 as part of Act 59, otherwise known as the Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act (CRBPA). Act 59 also set a more ambitious long-term goal of conserving 50% of the…
Public Input Sought on E-Biking Policy for Vermont State Forests and Parks
FPR has released its draft E-biking policy for VT State Forests and Parks. Public input is sought and due by 11/28.
Continue Reading Public Input Sought on E-Biking Policy for Vermont State Forests and Parks
VT Conservation Plan DRAFT Framework Published: Public Input Due November 14
A new draft outline of the Vermont Conservation Plan (VCP) is out, and the Project Management Team needs to hear from you! Once complete, the VCP will guide how Vermont pursues its mandated goal of permanently conserving 30% of the State by 2030 and 50% by 2050. This document lays out the background and rationale for what has been developed thus far, as well as the three major objectives and the underlying proposed pathways, or focus areas, for achieving these goals.
Continue Reading VT Conservation Plan DRAFT Framework Published: Public Input Due November 14
Public Meetings on New Act 250 Tiers
Last year, the legislature passed Act 181, which creates new land designation “Tiers” intended to change the Act 250 permitting process. “Tier 1” areas where growth is planned for and encouraged will have reduced or eliminated Act 250 permitting, whereas “Tier 3” areas with important natural resources will face automatic permitting in most cases. The…
Take Action: Urge Lawmakers to Support S.4
Please Take Action: VTGC is urging you to email the Senate Transportation Committee to ask them to Support S.4, a bill that would clarify that municipalities have explicit authority, but not obligation, to maintain Legal Trails. The bill would also provide towns with the authority to regulate the use of Legal Trails within their municipality, including what types of vehicles have public access on these trails.
Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development Hosts Outdoor Recreation Introduction
e House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development asked VTGC to provide an introduction to our organization and an overview of the VTGC 2025 Policy Priorities. Please see the presentation here and check out the video of our testimony (27:30). Chair Mike Marcotte from the Commerce Committee is the lead sponsor on our key priority bill that aims to study a pathway to a mechanism for recognition of private landowners who provide public access trails. We eagerly await the introduction of this bill that includes:
