We gave them an opportunity to enter the 21st century and they opted for the power of the status quo.” Such was one citizen’s summation of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Joint Legislative Committee’s recent work session, during which members killed one anti-snaring bill and subverted a second, amending it to pro-snaring legislation.

It took less than half an hour for committee members to thumb their noses at the fundamentals of ecosystem health known to every Maine middle school student; decades of wildlife research and the recommendations of a clear majority of Maine’s wildlife professionals; months of negative media attention for Maine’s wildlife management agency; and deeply held opposition to coyote snaring by Maine citizens. Only one committee member, Raymond Pineau, D-Jay, courageously voted against the special-interest influenced outcome, thereby forcing the gutted bill, LD 237, into a full debate by the Legislature.

In the words of one anti-snaring activist, “The dinosaurs simply did what dinosaurs do – our mistake was in assuming that they would act fairly.” Wildlife being mismanaged for the benefit of a tiny minority is hardly unique to Maine – it is the basis for most wildlife activism across America today. Concerned citizens are increasingly turning to the courts and ballot initiatives because of the type of legislative intransigence and special-interest influence exhibited on snaring by the IF&W committee. And despite the outcome of Maine’s war on coyotes, as aptly described by outdoor writer and sportsman Ted Williams in the February issue of Down East, these battles over wildlife management will continue until the dinosaurs do themselves in by their failure to adapt and their failure to listen to anyone but extremist special interests.

Maine’s No-Snare Task Force is a diverse group of mainstream citizens formed as a result of a 2001 report by a state wildlife biologist, who questioned the coyote snaring program’s selectivity, humaneness and effectiveness in protecting the deer herd. Throughout its nearly 20-year history, the coyote-snaring program has been intermittently under fire, including a damning indictment of its futility by Maine’s leading coyote scientist.

Finally, a 2001 IF&W report, which revealed that a majority of snared coyote carcasses showed distinct signs of a slow and tortured death, galvanized public indignation, generating two legislative bills, the threat of a tourism boycott, more letters to the Legislature than the budget and health care combined, and a lawsuit against the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

It is now increasingly clear that what began as a battle over coyote snaring has, thanks to the IF&W committee, become the first salvo in what will be a long struggle to bring wildlife management in line with that of our public parks and other natural resources – managed for all the people of Maine, with respect, with science, with compassion and with dignity. In a world where little is certain, it is heartening to know that the coyotes will be here long after the last dinosaur has disappeared.

Susan Cockrell studied wildlife ecology at Colorado State University, and Will La Page is a former member of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Commission. Both are members of Maine’s No-Snare Task Force.