OLD TOWN – For generations, black bears were considered such a nuisance in Maine that bounties were offered for their fuzzy ears.

Until the early 1980s, the state allowed two seasons a year – spring and fall – for hunting bear. The price for a bear-hunting tag is still a bargain – $5 for Mainers, and only $10 for nonresidents.

For those looking to bag a bear – especially hunters from states with smaller bear populations – Maine has long been a happy hunting ground.

But that may change.

“These are the good old days,” said Rep. Matthew Dunlap, D-Old Town, acknowledging that Maine’s laws are much looser than those of most other states.

Dunlap is House chairman of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, which is reviewing an array of proposals to change the bear hunting rules as figures show big increases in the numbers of bruins that find themselves in the cross-hairs of hunters’ guns.

In the fall 2000 season, hunters killed 3,951 bears, marking the second consecutive record harvest. In 1998, the head count was 2,618 bears, and the number jumped 33 percent to 3,483 a year later.

Craig McLaughlin, the bear expert for Maine’s game department, said the 3,951 figure should not be viewed as excessive.

Maine’s current bear population estimate is 23,000, the figure the state has set as a goal. The annual tally needs to be in the 3,500-4,000 range to sustain that optimum population, he said.

Wayne Bosowicz, a registered guide who has been leading bear hunters in the woods for 38 years, feels certain there’s no threat to the population of bruins in Maine, which he calls “an absolute bear paradise.”

Maine’s black bear population is protected by large blocks of land he calls “safety valves” where the species reproduces in prodigious numbers, said Bosowicz, of Sebec.

Those areas include Indian lands in Alder Township near Jackman and in the Sebois region, where little hunting is done, and the 203,000-acre Baxter State Park, where hunting is barred.

Baxter, he said, “just keeps spitting bear out, west, east, south and north.”

Dunlap views the situation with a little more wariness, and says that “we’re on the brink of taking too many bear.”

Long considered pests, bears were the subject of bounties until 1957. They could be hunted for six months, spring and fall, through a variety of methods that are still permitted.

Bear are not like deer, which are creatures of habit and tend to follow the same eating and travel patterns. By contrast, bears are creatures of opportunity, with less predictable habits.

Those differences account for the methods used to find bear: principally baiting them with doughnuts, sweets, peanut butter and other goodies that the bears find irresistible.

The second most popular method is with tracking dogs, and the third is by trapping them.

About a decade ago, the state shortened the time in which bear hunters can use bait and dogs.

Now, with bear kills rising, questions are being raised as to whether those traditional methods are even sporting. Bills have been introduced to bar the use of dogs and bait in bear hunts, but Dunlap doesn’t give either much chance of passage.

Another bill would allow guides to set no more than 10 baits; under present law there is no limit.

Also falling under scrutiny is the practice of selling bear parts for exotic markets. The wildlife committee is looking at a proposal to end that practice.

For his part, Dunlap is focused on other issues.

“We are grossly undercharging for bear tags,” said Dunlap, noting that the $10 figure for nonresidents contrasts with the several hundred dollars some states charge nonresidents to hunt big game species like elk.

Dunlap is mindful of what would happen to the bear hunt if either dogs or baits were banned.

State law requires out-of-staters to hire guides to hunt bear with dogs. Nonresidents make up the bulk of successful bear hunters in Maine – 70 percent of them in 1999.

So if guides’ ability to set traps is reduced, it could cut many hunters – especially those from other states – out of the action.

Bosowicz, the bear guide, is strongly supporting a proposal Dunlap is sponsoring that would remove a provision in Maine’s law that allows a deer hunter who spots a bear to shoot it.

The law has roots in the old thinking that bears are pests. Dunlap’s bill would require deer hunters to get a special stamp to kill a bear.

The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine is convinced that the larger bear kills are a sign of a growing population. The 13,000-member hunting and fishing lobby opposes all of the bear bills, especially Dunlap’s, said Executive Director George Smith.

“We don’t want a full-fledged debate over bear hunting,” said Smith.