Last summer (BDN op-ed, Aug. 21), I wrote that a power struggle is going on in Maine, one that will profoundly change the way wildlife is managed: “Citizens who believe that all wildlife species … are vital to Maine’s healthy ecosystems … will no longer stand by and allow extremists to abuse the public trust where wildlife is concerned.”

This same power struggle over wildlife policy was evidenced by efforts of the legislative arm of the National Rifle Association to silence distinguished bear biologist Tom Beck, by pressuring Outdoor Life magazine into canceling publication of Beck’s eloquent anti-bear-baiting essay, “A Failure of the Spirit.” As outdoor writer Ted Williams wrote in High Country News (March 3, 1997), “[They] accused Beck of revealing facts sportsmen shouldn’t know and expressing opinions sportsmen shouldn’t hear.”

When Beck, a devoted hunter and angler, spoke out against bear baiting in Idaho, the leader of that state’s sportsmen’s group wrote to Beck’s employer, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, demanding Beck be silenced and calling him an anti-hunting extremist.

Marc Bekoff, a world-famous predator biologist at the University of Colorado, was also the target of an attack on his personal and professional integrity. A Colorado wildlife agency official wrote the president of the University threatening to withhold grant funds and his personal bequest unless Bekoff’s public criticisms of an ill-conceived lynx reintroduction program were stopped.

Attempts to shut Tom Beck and Marc Bekoff down on wildlife issues are remarkably similar to the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine’s recent effort, through its executive director, George Smith, to silence me. All three attacks demonstrate absolute contempt for the free exchange of ideas and information.

In a letter to the University of Maine president, Smith alleged my misuse of “over $1,500 of the University’s funds,” via my “University office, including telephone and email systems, to support an initiative and state petition drive … to ban bear hunting with bait and dogs and bear trapping in Maine.” He sent copies of his letter to a number of followers, other members of the Legislature, Gov. Baldacci, and media outlets statewide, and he subsequently published it in the SAM newsletter and on the Internet.

Smith probably wishes he had taken time to verify my teaching status at the university. I haven’t taught since fall 2002, therefore I don’t have an office or access to university phones or photocopiers, facts that make SAM look absurd. In a Sept. 30 letter to Smith – one he is not likely to distribute statewide or publish on the Internet – the university confirmed that my use of my email account is well within its guidelines. Smith’s other allegations are equally embarrassing for SAM. The facts are, I’m not involved in the bear referendum campaign, nor am I a member of HSUS or any sponsoring group.

Not content with his allegations of misuse of university resources, Smith further accused me of wrongdoing as I, a private citizen, exercise my First Amendment rights to speak out on wildlife issues. Smith expressed surprise – he is “appalled” – that anyone who has worked successfully as a wildlife activist would be hired by a state institution and implied that there is something not quite legitimate about expressing opinions that oppose SAM’s.

SAM’s vigorous attempts to silence me raise the question of why they are so terrified by wildlife activists. We aggressively support wildlife protection, giving voice to Maine citizens who view wildlife as more than targets, commodities, and economic props. SAM, meanwhile, uses “slippery slope” hysteria to frighten recreational hunters, taking their hard-earned dollars to support a phony, multimillion-dollar “war to save hunting” for commercial guides and nonresident trophy hunters.

SAM is infuriated by outspoken opposition to the coyote-snaring program – a state-sponsored hoax so ineffective, unscientific, and illegal under federal law, that every responsible wildlife biologist in the state and The Wildlife Society has disavowed it. The facts about coyote snaring diminish SAM’s power.

SAM is panicked by the facts about the proposed bear referendum: Bear management and hunting prospers in states that have banned baiting and hounding, and the passage of referendums like the one proposed for Maine has never resulted in the end of all hunting, anywhere. The facts about the bear hunting referendum diminish SAM’s power.

We can expect personal attacks by SAM to increase as they lose their grip on their long-held power over Maine wildlife. Meanwhile, Tom Beck, Marc Bekoff and I are just three of the countless activists who have not only survived ambushes but have found them to be enormously energizing and amplifying. Our voices are stronger and clearer than ever. I urge SAM to calm down, drop the attacks and the slippery-slope hysterics, and join other Maine citizens on the solid ground of informed discourse about our wildlife.

Susan Cockrell lives in Holden and will be teaching at the University of Maine in spring 2004.