BANGOR (AP) – More than a dozen bills proposing changes in Maine’s bear hunt have been filed in the Legislature despite last November’s failed referendum that sought to ban the use of bait, dogs and traps in the hunt.

None of the bills would outlaw baiting, the most popular bear-hunting method, but several would make it illegal to use traps or dogs.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which opposed the referendum, has yet to take a stance on any of the new bills.

But the hunting groups and businesses that fought the referendum plan to oppose all of them, according to George Smith, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine.

“If there are changes, we’d like the department to address them,” said Smith, who believes that the Legislature is the not the proper place to take up such issues.

Rep. John Eder, a Green Independent Party member from Portland who collected signatures to get the bear issue on the ballot, quoted some voters as saying they preferred a proposal that would outlaw bear trapping only.

Although few hunters use the equipment, Maine is alone among the 50 states in still recognizing the leg-hold traps as legal for bear. Eder had initially introduced a bill banning each of the three hunting practices, but has since pulled his bill seeking to ban baiting for fear it would be too “inflammatory.”

Instead, he has joined forces with Rep. Thomas Watson, a Bath Democrat and co-chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, to co-sponsor a joint bill to ban bear traps.

Watson said he hopes to end the bear controversy by giving a bear-trapping ban the opportunity to be heard, as well as by sponsoring a second bill, supported by SAM, that would allow bear guides to carry guns into the woods at night and on Sundays if they are tracking a wounded bear.

“We’re trying to work out a compromise,” Watson said.

Bob Fisk, founder of Maine Friends of Animals and the spokesman for last year’s referendum campaign, said he will urge passage of the trapping bills, as well as a measure introduced by Rep. Jane Eberle, D-South Portland, that would ban the hunting of bears with hounds.

Fisk, too, supports splitting the issue, saying that he believes a referendum on only trapping and hunting with hounds could have passed.