Although Maine has no spring bear hunt, spring bear hunts are all around us. Quebec has one, as do some of the Maritime Provinces. Maine’s Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Nations also conduct a spring bear hunt.

Why not a statewide spring bear hunt in Maine?

According to Maine’s lead state bear biologist, Jennifer Vashon, “the bear population is expanding.” Bear biologist Randy Cross, who works for Vashon and has been stuyding and handling black bears for more than a quarter of a century, told me: “I would not oppose a spring bear hunt. For a bear manager, a spring bear hunt can be a precise and powerful tool. Success rates are high ( in a spring hunt) and very predictable, unlike the fall bear harvest.”

In 2009, the Deer Predation Working Group, seeking ways to turn around Maine’s deer population crisis by cutting down on young deer predation, asked the same question: why not a spring bear hunt? The report listed advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was a big one: “reduce the number of bears before they would prey on fawn deer.” (Former state deer biologist Gerry Lavigne once contended that bears take as many young deer as coyotes.) The listed disadvantages of a spring bear hunt were in the form of  questions that were revealing: “Unacceptable to the public? Would the legislature support it? Would legislative debate impact current seasons?”

So it would appear, from a purely scientific, biological point of view, a Maine spring bear hunt makes perfect sense and would be a win-win situation. Bear biologists could better study and control bear numbers while at the same time reducing predation pressure on young deer.

What’s the sticking point? There are many, and they are mostly of the social variety: politics, public relations, and economics. The Maine Professional Guides Association, whose membership is well populated by bear guides, have long opposed a resurrection of a spring bear hunt. Memories of the state bear referendum and the hard-fought battle to save the fall bear hunt still linger. Nobody wants to go through that again. Bear guides and outfitters, whose business is off by 25 percent or more, believe that a spring bear hunt would simply transfer their business from fall to spring — there would be no net economic gain. North Maine Woods, which  issues hundreds of bear hunting site permits for the fall bear hunt, has reportedly indicated that it would be opposed to a spring bear hunt mainly because of  their concern for early spring travel and wear and tear on their road systems.

Most interesting is that while Maine seems to focus on why it CAN’T have a spring bear hunt, our tribal neighbors who own some large parcels of wild lands are conducting small-scale spring bear hunts with great success. In so doing, they are creating some jobs for guides, opportunity for hunters, and, perhaps, saving some fawn deer along the way. Kristin Peet, who is a wildlife biologist employed by the Penobscot Nation, said that the tribe issued about 90 bear permits this spring and tagged more than 60 bears. This remarkable success rate supports bear biologist Randy Cross’s view that the spring bear hunt is a potentially “powerful tool” for bear managers looking to gather data and manage bear numbers.

Perhaps it is time for the state policymakers and stakeholders in the bear business to loosen up and keep an open mind when it comes to the prospect of a spring bear hunt in Maine. After all, as outdoor writer Steve Carpenteri notes, “After all these years (of bear research), Maine hasn’t had a bear season change in 24 years!  It’s been Aug. 29-Nov. 30 (more or less) since 1988! Meanwhile, all the states and provinces around us have improved, enhanced or expanded their bear seasons in the interim, most with fewer than two years of study!”

It may be that there is change on the horizon. Don Kleiner, spokesman for the Maine Professional Guides Association, said that his group is in the process of developing a “policy on spring bear hunts.”

Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Chandler Woodcock, when asked to comment on reports that he had insisted that the spring bear hunt was “not on the table,” had this to say: ” I remain cautious concerning the spring bear hunt. The bear population may warrant the discussion in the near future, but I will not recommend that we revisit the law at this time.”

The author 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, WQVM-FM  101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected] and his new book is “A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook.”