Bear hunting vote draws fire at Northern Maine Development Commission

The Northern Maine Development Commission held its monthly board of directors meeting on May 15.
The first issue on the agenda was one that many people in northern Maine, especially those involved in bear hunting, are well aware of. On Feb. 4, a Washington, D.C.-based anti-hunting lobby, along with the group Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting, which is financed by the anti-hunting lobby, submitted nearly 80,000 signatures to ban bear hunting methods on the November ballot this year. If approved, bear hunting over bait, bear hunting with hounds and bear trapping would all be outlawed.
This proposal has caused many advocates for bear hunting, as well as these methods of bear hunting, to speak up and look for support. James Cote, who was just recently hired as coordinator for the newly established Maine Wildlife Conservation Council (MWCC), spoke at the meeting via video conference to relay his, along with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s message, as far as where the two advocacy groups stand on the bear hunting issue.
James is also the campaign manager for the “Save Maine’s Bear Hunting” campaign, which opposes the referendum being proposed by the anti-hunting lobby and the Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting group. Cote pointed out that this is a referendum that Maine bear hunting advocates have faced before, as a similar proposal was made 10 years ago. The 2004 referendum also proposed to eliminate or outlaw the three previously mentioned methods of bear hunting.
The anti-hunting lobbyists suggest that hunting bear with bait, in particular, is no different than hunting deer over a food plot. To the anti-hunting lobbyists it’s considered killing a defenseless animal unfairly lured in by food. They consider the baiting method, as well as the trapping and hound methods of bear hunting to be unsportsmanlike and an unfair competition for the bear.
Cote’s council and the MDIFW have created a coalition of supporters to oppose the referendum that he hopes will reach out to groups like NMDC, in order to explain the effects such a referendum will have on economic development in Maine. Cote mentioned that a vote like this, if it were to pass, would force hunters, guides and anyone else employed in a field related to bear hunting to ask themselves a difficult question.
“Many of the folks that we represent would be forced with the question of whether or not to even continue on with their business if this type of hunt were to be eliminated,” said Cote.
According to a press release from the “Save Maine’s Bear Hunt” group, along with the Maine Bowhunters Association and the Maine Wildlife Conservation Council, “the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has committed to spend millions of dollars in Maine for this issue. Most voters don’t know that HSUS is not the dog and cat shelter folks. Instead, HSUS is the world’s largest anti-hunting organization. This is the same organization that bankrolled attempts to stop all bear hunting in New Jersey and Maryland. They oppose programs that introduce young people to hunting.”
The press release explains that in order to defeat this attack, sportsmen, landowners, small businessmen, unions and many others have formed the Maine Wildlife Conservation Council. The coalition includes every major sportsmen organization in Maine.
“We are reaching out to a tremoundesly diverse spectrum of organizations and individuals across the state. This is not a north or south issue. It’s not a Republican or Democrat issue. It’s not even hunter versus non-hunter,” said Cote. “We really want to make sure people know that this is a Maine issue, and that we are here to support the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, as well as our guiding and outfitter industries.”
Cote explained exactly who makes up this newly established coalition, which is synonmous with the MWCC.
“The council is made up of many of the groups that one might consider hunting-friendly here in Maine,” said Cote. “We’ve got the Sportsmen Alliance of Maine, the Maine Professional Guides Association, the Maine Trackers Association and we’re joined by a host of other groups like the Bowhunters Association and the U.S. Sportsmen Alliance, as well as many others.”
Cote praised the MWCC and the entire diverse coalition for gathering such a vast group of people to oppose this initiative.
“The coalition includes all three candidates for Governor – Paul LePage, Mike Michaud and Elliot Cutler, and the joke that I always throw in here is that those three guys can’t agree on anything, but they agree on this,” Cote joked. “I think that speaks volumes for the campaign, and on top of that we have every member of legislative leadership, Republican and Democrat, on board. Over 100 legislators have already signed on.”
Cote also praised the state for its well recognized bear management and conservation programs. He mentioned the over 2,000 years of experience that Maine’s biologists have been working in the woods of Maine, and the fact that the program has such sound science from over the last 40 years to lean on, leads Cote and the coalition to believe that Maine’s scientists, biologists and game wardens should be the ones making the decisions when it comes to Maine’s bear management program, rather than having such decisions put forth as referendums and going through the ballot-box process.
“The group that’s proposing this initiative, the HSUS is a $150 million a year non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C.,” said Cote. “They were the same proponents who opposed this 10 years ago, as well. They came to Maine and paid many the signature gatherers and have financed about 99 percent of the campaign, to date.”
Next, Cote went into the details regarding perhaps one of the most important issues when it comes to bear hunting, which is the bear management aspect. Cote explained that the MDIFW reports Maine must harvest somewhere between 3,500 and 4,500 black bears every year, in order to maintain a healthy population. Currently Maine is just shy of that level and Cote attributes much of that to the current economic recession.
A perfect example of what can happen when hunts like these three are taken away is Colorado. Colorado lost these types of hunting methods in 1993 and today, the state doesn’t harvest nearly as many bears as Maine, despite the fact they have far more hunters. Cote also explained that they are having far more bear nuisance complaints than Maine could ever imagine.
“Last year Maine had to put down three bears, due to nuisance and safety complaints,” said Cote. “In Colorado that number was 400, and they have less bears than we do. That’s one of the things we’re trying to stress most during this campaign, and that’s the fact that our management programs are working. We have the most bears in the eastern United States, with the least amount of nuisance complaints.”
Cote would appear to have a valid argument when it comes to the management aspect of the issue, however, there still lies the issue of whether or not these three types of hunts are unfair, which is the Humane Society’s argument.
“We don’t think that killing bears is an appropriate strategy for the management of our bear population,” said Cote. “We would much rather have those bears contributing to local economies, or for our biologists to manage them in a sound and scientific way.”