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 larger projects such as new bathroom or shower facilities that require planning and permitting. Fitzko said the total annual need to fully maintain the parks’ infrastructure is substantially higher but that FPR uses the requested dollars to leverage federal funds including the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

The department also described a capital line (identified in testimony as “public land access infrastructure,” line 88) for investments outside developed parks — sites where heavy visitation requires parking, trail improvements, toilets or other site hardening. Fitzko said $700,000 was proposed for FY2026 and $700,000 for FY2027 to support improvements at popular but undesignated sites such as the south end of Lake Willoughby, fire towers that are now recreational destinations, Mount Philo and other heavily used trailheads.

A third request within the clean water budget (testimony cited Section 10, line 100) would direct $200,000 to “Forestry Access Road Water Quality Improvements.” Fitzko said FPR has an inventory of roughly 600 miles of roads on Agency of Natural Resources lands; staff used an erosion-assessment method similar to municipal road assessments to identify hydrologically connected segments that are producing sediment and prioritized fixes such as ditch relief, properly sized culverts and armoring culvert outlets.

Fitzko summarized the scale of the system and maintenance needs: FPR oversees roughly 360,000–370,000 acres of state lands (testimony included both figures at different points), operates 39 campgrounds with more than 2,000 campsites, 51 cabins and 29 beaches, and manages hundreds of built assets. She said the parks account for approximately $280 million in built infrastructure assets. Department-wide staffing was described in two ways during testimony: FPR has about 135 year-round staff across the department and swells to about 450 seasonal staff at peak season; park-specific permanent staffing was described as roughly 45 year-round positions. Fitzko emphasized that permanent staff perform year-round maintenance, oversight of seasonal crews and contractor supervision.

Senators asked about contractor capacity, wastewater systems and revenue sources. Fitzko said FPR uses a mix of permanent staff and contractors: the department performs custodial and light technical maintenance in-house, retains outside vendors for heavy construction and specialized work, and shares purchasing and retainer contracts with the Department of Buildings and General Services (BGS). She noted FPR operates 36 public water systems and that nine larger indirect-discharge wastewater systems — those discharging more than 6,600 gallons per day — require special permitting and operation. On revenue, Fitzko said state park operations are mainly funded by admissions, which she estimated at about $12 million, and by ski-leases on state lands that yield roughly $4 million; she said a portion of timber revenues is deposited into land and facilities trust accounts to steward land and pay for projects, rather than directly into operations.

Fitzko also described results from a parks modernization study completed in the prior year, which recommended investments to improve accessibility, stormwater and wastewater management and climate resilience. She said FPR is prioritizing projects that reduce impervious area where possible and that, where mitigation is required, the agency may pay impact fees or pursue design solutions to reduce environmental effects.

The committee did not take a vote on the requests during the hearing. Fitzko and staff offered to provide additional detail on ski-lease revenues and to return with follow-up information requested by senators.

Fitzko closed by saying FPR is in an intense hiring period to staff the upcoming season and that the department is balancing day-to-day operations, emergency responses and a multi-year pipeline of capital projects.