Question 1 in this year’s election was about much more than baiting, hounding and trapping bears. Maine’s system of fish and wildlife management is broken.
A citizen’s referendum was a last resort, and it was the general public’s only real opportunity to affect the management of our fish and wildlife resources. More than 275,000 people voted in favor of putting an end to recreational killing of bears by baiting, hounding and trapping. Unfortunately, a sufficient number of Maine voters were duped by the special interest groups including the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife into voting to continue these unethical and unnecessary practices.
In accordance with the Public Trust Doctrine, Maine’s fish and wildlife resources belong to all Mainers. Prior to the advent of laws intended to regulate the taking of fish and wildlife, these publicly owned resources were nearly wiped out in Maine. Although laws have been enacted to allow for the restoration of most wildlife species (the politically controversial cougar and wolf are notable exceptions), the management of the public’s fish and wildlife resources continues to be controlled by consumptive users (hunters, fishermen and trappers) who constitute a minority of Maine’s population. For example, less than one half of one percent of Mainers hunt bears.
The state of Maine has yet to enact or implement fish and wildlife laws and rules that force DIF&W to treat consumptive and non-consumptive (e.g. wildlife watchers) users equally. The legal and political decks are, and always have been, stacked in favor of the consumptive users.
Time and again, pro-wildlife bills — for example, proposals to ban coyote snaring — are either killed unanimously by the Legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee or are sent to the full Legislature with one vote in favor, virtually condemning the legislation to failure.
At the department level, sportsman’s interests are well represented on the DIF&W Commissioner’s Advisory Council, and legislation to guarantee representation for the hundreds of thousands of non-consumptive users who live in Maine have been repeatedly killed. The legislators, DIF&W and the consumptive users make sure it stays this way.
Unfortunately, most Mainers are not aware that the DIF&W is the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse.
DIF&W gets an “F” in my book when it comes to complying with the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, upon which fish and wildlife management should be based. In accordance with the model, wildlife is a “public trust resource.” In other words, it is the responsibility of the DIF&W to serves as the trustees of this public resource.
In the bear referendum, DIF&W immediately took a position in opposition to Question 1 with no opportunity for input from the general public and no scientific evidence to support its position. In accordance with the wildlife conservation model, “science is the proper tool for discharge of wildlife policy.” Yet DIF&W claimed that bear baiting (in Maine, millions of pounds of food are fed to thousands of bears) does not impact the size of the bear population but provided no science to support their claim.
Likewise, DIF&W provided no science to support their claim that baiting, hounding and trapping are needed to control Maine’s bear population. They also provided no science-based explanation for the more-than-30 percent increase in Maine’s bear population in just the last 10 years with baiting, hounding and trapping in place.
Contrary to the model, DIF&W supports a non-democratic system that caters to out-of-state hunters and limits resident hunters who cannot afford to pay the big bucks charged by outfitters to hunt bears on thousands of acres of private land. During the campaign, DIF&W promoted its own self-interest and that of the consumptive users by using public employees to instill fear in the public.
These actions by DIF&W were not based on science.
Given DIF&W’s history of catering to consumptive users, it is doubtful that the agency has learned from this experience that it needs to be more responsive to, and inclusive of, all Mainers. One thing is for sure. Unless and until the people of Maine hold their government accountable, they will get the very government they deserve.
John Glowa of China is a longtime wildlife advocate. He is founder and president of the Maine Wolf Coalition.