WILTON, Maine - A new survey concludes that bear hunters spend $35.4 million across the state each year, mostly in Aroostook County, the Maine Highlands and western Maine. The survey, conducted for the Maine Office of Tourism and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, also finds that bear hunting and related activities contribute nearly $53 million to the state's economy and support 565 jobs. According to the survey, of the 21,000 bear hunters in Maine, 7,000 come from out of state. Susan Sharon recently spoke with a group of them about whether they would continue bear hunting in Maine if a statewide referendum to ban the use of bait, hounds and traps is approved next month.
The six men sitting around this table in Bob Parker's hunting lodge in Wilton, Maine, all come "from away." Most have saved and planned for a week-long bear hunt for at least a year. By the time all is said and done, they'll have invested several thousand dollars a piece for the license, the guide service, accommodations and meals, gas for the ride up to Maine and maybe a lobster or two to bring as presents for the trip home.
Greg Riso is from Long Island. He says his trip was a birthday present. "My girlfriend gave me a 60th birthday party," he says. "She had 55 of my friends come. They all donated, OK? Everybody came in camo. It was a smash of a party."
Riso has a hunting camp in New York, where he typically hunts deer. He'd never been to the Maine woods before or tried hunting for bear. This is his last day of the bear hunt. And though he's only glimpsed a pair of cubs, he says it's been a worthwhile experience getting out in the woods and getting to know the other hunters.
"It's a great place to be at. I'm having a great time," he says. "To get a bear is a bonus, you know what I mean? It's a crap shoot. It comes in front of bait and you harvest an animal. But it doesn't come easy."
"In hindsight, looking at it, it was probably the toughest thing I've ever done," says Ed Peters of Taunton, Massachusetts. Peters says his bear hunting trip started out slow. He spent the first few days sitting in a tree stand for several hours at a time, watching a bait site from a distance. But no bears turned up. So, Peters tried hunting with hounds instead. At first, he says, it started off as an hour-long wild goose chase. The dogs got on a scent that turned out to be nothing. Then they hit on something.
"We hiked 2.5 hours up, across a mountain, down a mountain, down a stream and we were lucky that we happened to have one," Peters says.
Peters says he picked the Stony Brook Outfitter Guide Service because it was recommended as a well-run operation respectful of animals. Katie Hansberry of the group "Mainers for Fair Bear Hunters" takes issue with that characterization. She says the use of bait, hounds and traps is cruel, unsporting and unnecessary.
Hansberry's group is backing a statewide referendum to ban all three methods. She says Colorado, Oregon and Washington all saw interest in so-called "fair chase hunting" increase when they did away with bait and hounds. Fair chase is when hunters stalk and kill their prey without assistance.
"You look at those other states - as soon as they restored 'fair chase,' the interest in bear hunting increased. They had more hunters," she says. "Revenue in those states, from there being more bear hunters and more tag sales, went up. Same thing is going to happen here in Maine. The people who want to be involved in fair chase bear hunting are not coming here to Maine. They're going to Colorado, Oregon, Washington. They don't want to come here and participate, or try and compete with these unfair practices."
Greg Riso and Ed Peters say they understand that hunting isn't for everyone, but it's in their blood. They say they would have no interest in fair chase bear hunting in Maine if the referendum passes. Like Tony Fasano, of Staten Island, New York, they think it would be virtually impossible to control the bear population let alone bag a bear.
"These woods are so vast," Fasano says. "There's no way you're gonna walk in these woods and hope to stumble upon a bear. It's not gonna happen."
Fasano says he wouldn't come back to Maine to hunt either. He says, for one thing, he'd be too resentful. "It just really rubs me the wrong way just thinking that somebody would even want to think about destroying this, really," he says. " 'Cause you can't go anywhere like this, you can't. Just the state, the woods. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful place."
The hunters' sentiment echoes a 2004 survey of resident and non-resident hunters who said they would also look for opportunities to bear hunt in other states or Canada if the use of bait, hounds and traps were discontinued in Maine.
A recent poll by the Pan Atlantic SMS group found that more than half of respondants oppose the referendum to restrict bear hunting. And in the most rural part of the state, where hunting is a way of life and where most bear hunting takes place, more than 64 percent of those surveyed say they plan to vote No.
