Twenty-five years ago, Vermont took important steps to protect the quality of the state’s environment. These steps resulted from a focus on changes that appeared to be overwhelming the state in terms of growth and the resulting impacts on the environment, especially the state's water quality. Governor Deane Davis opened the 1970 Legislature with this observation:

It is not necessary, I am sure, to convince this Assembly that the time has come to take responsible action to prevent further massive Pollution of our land, water, and air and to step up the pace of our efforts to eliminate many forms of pollution already existing.

Those "responsible actions" included implementation of the nation's toughest water quality regulations, a first-in the-nation attempt at managing growth through land use control regulations, and consolidation of environmental programs of three departments within the new Agency of Environmental Conservation (now called the Agency of Natural Resources). Together with an earlier step to ban billboards and later passage of a bottle bill, Vermont gained national attention as a leader in environmental management.

Within the past 25 years, Vermont has grown in population by more than 25%, more than doubled its economic activity, and doubled the number of miles driven on its highways (Fig. 1). In addition to these changes in the human environment, Vermont has witnessed increasing populations of moose, peregrine falcon, and osprey, as well as gypsy moths, pear thrips, lampreys, and Eurasian watermilfoil. Partly resulting from these changes, there are parts of Vermont that are undeniably altered: less farmland, replaced by some commercial and residential development, and an increase in forested land (Fig. 2). These forests, most of which are privately owned, provide wildlife habitat, an economic resource base, and recreational and scenic assets.

Since the 1960s, Vermont's environmental quality has improved in some ways and deteriorated in others. Large individual sources of water and air pollution have been curbed, and the stresses on critical habitat such as draining wetlands, dredging stream bottoms, and fragmenting wilderness tracts are much better understood, and therefore, easier to manage. In some other cases, results are mixed. For example, emissions from automobiles have decreased on a per mile basis, but the reliance on cars has increased so dramatically as to wipe out most of the improvements. Similarly, while Vermonters have done an outstanding job of cleaning up the state's waters through the treatment of municipal, industrial, and other discharges, the chronic addition of nutrients and sediment continues to affect the ability of our surface waters to sustain diverse biological communities. The proliferation of non-native species is degrading several of our resources and until very recently we have continued to generate an increasing amount of solid waste.

Despite the apparent mixed results reflected in these observations, one thing is clear: without the steps taken in the past 25 years, our environment would be in significantly worse shape.

The Agency of Natural Resources presents ENVIRONMENT 1995 to give Vermonters a sense of where improvements have been made in environmental quality, and where additional improvements need to be made. The Agency has, for 25 years, been the focus of activities to reduce environmental degradation. In that role, ANR is responsible for monitoring the environment, regulating activities, and promoting public dialogue about environmental issues.

Regulatory activities are sometimes easier to observe than the benefits that result. The closing of unlined landfills has resulted in some communities having difficulty finding affordable alternatives, but it has also removed the route for tons of toxic chemicals to enter our ground and surface waters. The management of wildlife populations has a history of controversy, but today ANR combines monitoring, regulation, and public dialogue to set wildlife population goals and design the management steps to attain those goals. As a result, there is more public consensus on wildlife management practices, and in addition, the populations of deer, bear, trout, and many others species are less susceptible to abrupt fluctuations than in the past.

Vermonters have a close relationship to the land and its resources. Vermonters have been and continue to be a balanced mix of independence and interdependence, and the land provides the fulcrum for that balance. Vermont has a rich history of agriculture, forestry, industry, subsistence life styles, and tourism, all of which are based on the natural resources of the state. Beyond the economic ties, the state's natural resources provide many Vermonters a source of recreation. More than one in five state residents hunt or fish. In addition, as a recent survey by the US Fish and Wildlife Service shows, 60% of Vermonters make non-consumptive use of the state's natural resources. This includes bird-watching, photography, biking, canoeing, skiing, and hiking.

Maintaining natural resource quality and personal independence are critical values to Vermonters. A 1972 survey showed that most Vermonters supported environmental regulation but some would not sacrifice their personal freedom to preserve the environment. The current debates about Vermont's land use control regulations reflect the same tension. There is evidence of change in personal habits, but those changes have come about slowly. Recycling has been an option to improve environmental quality for decades, and yet only within the past five years has the level of personal involvement in recycling increased noticeably.

Vermont has a range of tools to promote environmental protection. Laws designed to minimize environmental impacts from large and easily identifiable sources are now in place. Equally important is an increasing awareness of the value of pollution prevention and public/private collaboration to carry out the actions necessary to protect the environment. However, 576,000 individual opportunities are available but not yet fully utilized to ensure a continuing high-quality environment in Vermont. Individual Vermonters who fail to maintain their cars, woodstoves, or septic systems all contribute significantly to the cumulative environmental burdens placed on the state. Vermonters are also on the same track as the rest of Americans in demanding greater use of energy intensive vehicles and appliances, greater numbers of recreational vehicles and vacation homes, more acreage of monocultured lawns, and more products transported from further distances.

Governor Davis concluded in his 1970 address, ". . . real success, as it is in many areas of social action, must include the compelling force of self-discipline that only comes when the majority of citizens see and understand and believe." ENVIRONMENT 1995 is intended to help Vermonters see and understand and believe the changing quality of our environment, and take the necessary steps to maintain and enhance that quality.