Like a perpetual motion machine, the Maine lynx issue rolls on. It is a seemingly endless legal litany that may well outlive us all.

It goes back and forth. Wildlife policymakers make a move. The animal rights activists make a countermove. In the middle of it all are judges and lawyers for both sides. It could be argued that the Endangered Species Act, which started all of this legal chess is, in reality, an elaborate public works program, a make-work scam enacted to create jobs for people.

Then there is the lynx, the focus of all this litigative folderol. It only wants a rabbit now and then, and some woods to hunt and hide in. It currently has both, and, from all reports, is multiplying and doing very well, thank you.

In the latest move, a federal judge has rejected a petition from the animals rights extremists to close down Maine trapping. A larger suit, brought by the same crowd against the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, is still pending in Federal court.

There is a solution. It is called an ITP, or an incidental-take permit. Issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to state wildlife departments, the ITP “permits” a limited amount of incidental takes of lynx by Maine trappers. Once adopted, it would go a long way toward limiting all this legal action by the animal-rights extremists.

So how do we get one of these ITPs?

According to Ken Elowe, the No. 3 guy at MDIF&W, the state has finally, after many, many months, submitted its lynx ITP application in August. Elowe says that the application is currently being reviewed by USFWS’s regional office in Hadley, Mass. But before the state’s application can be submitted to the Federal Register for public comment, it must be accompanied by – you guessed it – more paperwork: a NEPA. This acronym stands for National Environmental Policy Act.

It seems that all applications for an incidental take permit must include an environmental impact assessment. It will be up to USFWS biologist Mark McCollough to draft the document. McCollough, who was preoccupied with the earlier lynx litigation, was going to start writing the NEPA assessment after Christmas. “I’m really hopeful that we can narrow this thing down, focus on the lynx and not all types of trapping,” says McCollough.

McCollough says that because of the complexity of this issue, as well as its potential to attract animal-rights litigants, it is important to dot every “i” and cross every “t”. He suggests that finalization of the state’s incidental-take permit isn’t likely to happen until late next summer. He characterizes the process as “onerous.”

Now that’s putting it mildly.

V. Pual Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].