Act 181 which was enacted in 2024, was intended to reform Act 250 to allow for a lighter permitting process for affordable housing in town centers while protecting forests from being fragmented. Act 181 was also a method of implementing Act 59, or the conservation of 30% of Vermont by 2030 and 50% by 2050.
This week (4/7/26) the House Environment Committee is taking testimony on S.325 which would delay implementation of certain provisions of Act 181. It has passed the Senate and is before this committee, before it goes to the full House. This is a good time to send comments. The House Environment Committee is chaired by Rep. Amy Sheldon, the same legislator who wrote both Act 181 and Act 59.
While most Vermonters would agree with the goals of Act 181, the problem is not the vision, but the implementation, which has not included those most affected. When you look at the Tier maps and read the legalese in Act 181, you start to see real problems.
Ben Falk’s Commentary article in VT Digger on 4/6/26 says it well, here is an excerpt, I encourage you to read that article.
“Vermonters have long recognized that working lands can support biodiversity and that agricultural landscapes can contribute to ecological health. That’s a critical point: farms and managed landscapes are not outside the conservation framework — they are a key part of it. But those benefits were not meaningfully valued in Act 181.
Yet Act 181 provides no clear framework for supporting or incentivizing these systems. Instead, it expands regulatory burdens in rural areas, making it harder for the very people managing these landscapes to continue their work. Small farmers, homesteaders, and land-based entrepreneurs — those maintaining fields, woodlots, wetlands, and edge habitats — face additional permitting requirements in an already challenging economic environment.”
Act 181 has a tiered system that identifies areas of Vermont in a statewide zoning map of sorts. The tiered map system appears to be very flawed, is still not finished, and is not based on facts or on on-the-ground research, but on satellite imagery and best guesses. Right now there is much concern about Tier 3 and the “Road Rule” (due to be in force by July 1, 2026 if S.325 does not pause), but the whole system needs major revision from what I have researched so far.
If S.325 passes, it delays Act 181 to “get it right”, but so far, it’s been worked on by law makers and conservation groups, but has not included rural Vermonters at the table.
The problem here isn’t a lack of input or potential solutions that protect the environment and our rural way of life. The issue is a lack of balance and accountability in how that input is considered. If legislation affects landowners and their rights, they belong at the center of the process—not relegated to public comment sessions after the big picture policy decisions have been made by those who believe they know more about conservation and environmental impact.
Who will be the experts that will make up the new Land Use Review Board? Will they include farmers, forest industry, and working lands people, along with those with degrees?
If the goal is to address forest fragmentation and biodiversity, that conversation should happen openly—with the people who live and work on the land at the table.
Most rural Vermonters have a self-sufficient lifestyle mindset that includes a major understanding, respect, and knowledge of the land, waters and rural landscape. I would argue that some of those working the lands, especially generations on the same land, have more understanding and more to offer than those with degrees.
Communication, education, and collaboration must come before regulation.
There are many places to look for information and comments. There is a newly formed Facebook group (Vermont 181), and the Vermont Natural Resources Council, has a page, but remember they are all for this Act. Rural Vermont Rising has a website.
You can find the email addressess for the House Environment Committee and other State Reps at: https://legislature.vermont.gov
Please spend some time to look into this and make up your own minds as to what is really at stake. Don’t wait, the time is now.
Thank you for being an involved citizen,
Bridgewater lives in Fayston.
