Ballot box the only remaining option for wildlife advocates

To the Editor;

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to V. Paul Reynolds (Ballot box biology is bad for wildlife management).

First of all, Maine’s fish and wildlife “management” system is broken, corrupt and rigged in favor of those who kill the public’s wildlife. The Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the IFW Advisory Council, the Maine Legislature and Maine statutes related to wildlife are all stacked decks against wildlife. For example, Maine’s animal cruelty laws specifically exempt anyone who is lawfully hunting or trapping. Why would there be an exemption unless these activities are inherently cruel? Another example is the IFW Advisory Council in which all members are supposed to represent the public but are handpicked by IFW for their support for IFW and for killing the public’s wildlife.

I recently submitted three petitions to IFW and the IFW Advisory Council in accordance with Maine statute. They included: 1) phasing out Maine’s bear feeding program over a 10-year period; 2) ending coyote trapping; and 3) placing limits and requirements on coyote hunting including ending so-called predator derbies. Mr. Reynolds falsely claimed that I proposed to ban coyote hunting. I collected more than 150 signatures for each petition as required and I spent much of last winter traveling to more than 90 town offices to have the signatures verified as required. I did this because I know Maine’s fish and wildlife “management” system is broken and neither IFW nor the Maine legislature will enact reform. I know they won’t because I had a bill in the Maine legislature in 2019 to “reform” this system which was voted down unanimously by the IFW legislative committee without as much as one word of discussion. As expected, all three of my petitions were voted down unanimously by the IFW Advisory Council.

My coyote related petitions had nothing to do with the coyote population or its sustainability. They had everything to do with waste, cruelty, thrill killing and the fact that Maine has wolves that are likely being killed and wrongly identified as coyotes. The recent decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist wolves was not based on science or the law and it will be successfully challenged in the courts as have previous such decisions. The federal delisting has nothing to do with the fact that wolves are in Maine, that they are very important for a healthy ecosystem, or that IFW is required by law to “…preserve, protect and enhance the inland fisheries and wildlife resources of the State…and to provide for effective management of these resources….” IFW continues to ignore its statutory mandates.

This leaves the ballot box as the only remaining option for wildlife advocates. Due to the stubborn refusals of the consumptive use extremists and their allies in the legislature and at IFW, the public has no choice remaining but to use the ballot box. If IFW actually based its management actions on science, if Maine’s statutes provided a level playing field, if the Maine Legislature was not in league with the extremists, if IFW Advisory Council members were not chosen solely for their support for IFW and killing, and if wildlife advocates were given a seat at the table, we would be happy to let science drive fish and wildlife management. As a former state employee, I know, however, that important decisions are made by management and those decisions are often based on politics. This has certainly proven true with both bear and moose “management”.

Wildlife advocates would love not to have to use the ballot box. It is no small feat conducting a petition drive to collect and verify tens of thousands of signatures. The simple fact of the matter is that we are not given a seat at the table. We are not listened to. We are ignored. We are publicly ridiculed and defamed. The consumptive use extremists decry “ballot box biology” but they are not afraid to go to the ballot box when it suits them. Furthermore, these extremists have made multiple attempts in the Legislature to take even this last real option away from the people of Maine. So far these attempts have been unsuccessful.

The public is finally waking up to the fact that Maine’s fish and wildlife “management” system is broken and corrupt. The much needed reform will occur sooner or later, and the sooner the better for the public’s wildlife and for both wildlife advocates and “sportsmen.”

John M. Glowa, Sr.

South China