Vermont Forests, Parks and Recreation seeks $6 million in capital funding for state parks, plus smaller grants for access and water quality

The Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (FPR) asked the Senate Institutions Committee on Wednesday, March 26, for $6 million in capital funding across fiscal years 2026 and 2027 to support repairs and modernization at Vermont State Parks, and outlined two smaller capital requests for public land access infrastructure and forestry road water-quality improvements.

Commissioner Danielle Fitzko, joined by Brent Spalding, project manager for Vermont State Parks, and Kate Everly, legislative affairs and communications, told senators that Vermont manages a large public-land portfolio and that state parks require continual capital investment to maintain visitor services and regulatory compliance. “We like to say that there’s a state park within 20 minutes of a Vermonter,” Fitzko said, noting the system includes 55 developed state parks and that the parks system had more than 1 million visitors last year.

Fitzko described the $6 million capital request (Section 9 of the capital bill) as $3.5 million for FY2026 and $2.5 million for FY2027. She said those monies would be applied across three project categories: small-scale repairs and quick-response funds for system failures (for example, emergency wastewater repairs), mid-scale upgrades such as heat-pump or electrical improvements, and…