Vermont Farmers Can Legally Kill Bears Eating Their Corn, But Debate Over Practice Persists

Tim Taft, a dairy farmer in Huntington, examines bear damage in one of his cornfields. Last year, he estimates he lost about $17,000 due to bears eating his corn. (Liam Elder-Connors/VPR)

Vermonters pride themselves on their connection to the land, but sometimes how one person values the natural world clashes with another’s belief.

Such a tension has been playing out in Huntington, a small valley town in Chittenden County where one dairy farmer has been accused of needlessly killing bears. The farmer, however, said if he didn’t, his entire business could have been in trouble.

Tim Taft is standing at the edge of one of his cornfields, looking out at the sea of green stalks slowly swaying in the breeze. The fourth-generation dairy farmer grows about 150 acres of corn, which is a key ingredient in the feed he gives to his herd of 240 cows.

He points straight ahead at the field: “If we go right in through here, we’re going to find a pocket right here.”

The “pocket” that Taft is talking about is not far from the road. After about 30 seconds of walking through the tightly planted rows of corn, there’s an open patch where a mass of stalks have been knocked down and stripped of corn — this is what bear damage looks like, Taft said.

Read the rest of the story at VPR’s website.