A committee set up to study Maine’s bear hunting, baiting and trapping laws has taken small steps to improve those laws. More important, the committee suggests studying the impacts of baiting on bear health and gathering more information about bear trapping, data that would be useful when referendum questions to ban bear baiting and trapping inevitably return to the ballot.

Those who want outright bans on trapping and baiting characterized the report as a failure while sportsmen said the department “caved in” to the interests of wildlife advocacy groups. While far from complete, the report, released last week, is an important start in bridging the gap between these two groups.

A referendum to ban the hunting of bears with bait or dogs and to outlaw trapping was rejected by voters in 2004. Although it failed, polls showed strong public disapproval of trapping. The bear working group, set up by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife after the vote, begins to address this concern by calling for a prohibition on steel-jawed leg hold traps, devices even many sportsmen consider unnecessary. The department should enact such a ban and a one-trap limit, down from the current two.

The committee, which included sportsmen, landowner and animal welfare groups, failed to agree on an outright trapping ban and recommended that the IF&W Department gather more information about how many trappers there are in Maine and what types of devices they use. The committee also called for more study of bear baiting and its effects on ursine health, reproduction and survival. Such information was lacking during the 2004 referendum campaign.

The IF&W Department has already intimated that it doesn’t have enough money to conduct such studies. Lawmakers should find the money or ensure that the department enters into an agreement with the University of Maine, or some other capable institution, to ensure that the baiting and trapping studies are done.

Beyond bears, the best way to ensure that IF&W is not viewed as an agency that caters to hunters and fishermen is to fund more of its operations from the General Fund. Recognizing this problem, the Legislature in 2003 passed a bill requiring the state to fund 18 percent of the department’s budget with money from the General Fund. Because of budget shortfalls, this has not happened. Attempts to assess fees on hikers, kayakers and other nonconsumptive users have also failed.

Improving Maine’s bear hunting laws and IF&W’s funding situation will take time and cooperation from sportsmen and wildlife advocates. This working group should be a step in that direction.