Maine’s Law To Ban Snaring………Sort Of
February 26, 2010
When I wrote my article the other day, “Maine Should Bring Back Snaring”, I stated in that article that Maine had banned snaring due to action by the Maine Legislature. I was somewhat called out on that and I would like to clarify this and offer a bit of commentary also, if I may. In the previous article, I said:
The ban on snaring can be overturned through the Legislature, by emergency ruling if necessary, to allow for snaring in and around known wintering yards for deer
Due to the timing and dates on this bill, it appears as though the bill was approved after Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Roland Martin put a stop to coyote snaring. The original bill was titled, “An Act To Prohibit Coyote Snaring and Eliminate the Coyote Snaring Program” and read as follows:
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 12 MRSA ?7035, sub-?3, ?B, as amended by PL 1999, c. 636, ?1,
is repealed.Sec. 2. 12 MRSA ?7504, sub-?4, as enacted by PL 1979, c. 420, ?1, is
amended to read:4. Coyotes. The commissioner may cause department personnel
to take coyotes at any time and in any manner that he may
prescribe, except that coyotes may not be taken by snaring.Sec. 3. Appropriations and allocations. The following appropriations and
allocations are made.INLAND FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE,
DEPARTMENT OF Resource Management Services -
Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
Initiative: Deappropriates funding used to pay agents for
the snaring of coyotes.General Fund 2003-04 2004-05
All Other ($15,700) ($15,700)
SUMMARY
This bill repeals the statutory authorization for the coyote
snaring program and deappropriates funding associated with the
direct costs of the program. Under the bill, hunting coyotes
with firearms and dogs or trapping them without the use of
snare traps will still be authorized.
It was subsequently amended and the title changed as well to, “An Act To Improve the Coyote Control Program”. That amended bill was enacted on April 25, 2003 and reads as follows:
CHAPTER 73
H.P. 192 – L.D. 237
An Act To Improve the Coyote Control Program
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 12 MRSA ?7035, sub-?3, ?B, as amended by PL 1999, c. 636, ?1,
is repealed.Sec. 2. 12 MRSA ?7035, sub-?3, ?B-1 is enacted to read:
B-1.__An agent may use snares to control coyotes during
winter months under the following conditions.(1)__Agents may use snares only for animal damage
control purposes to help meet management goals
established by the commissioner for deer, threatened or
endangered species or other wildlife species or to
benefit agricultural interests as described in
paragraph C.(2)__Agents must be trained and certified by the
department in the use of snares.(3)__Agents must be deployed by a department wildlife
biologist before setting snares.
So I was half correct when I said that coyote snaring was banned by the Legislature. I was half correct when I said the Legislature needed to overturn the ban. I still say they need to overturn the ban but I wasn’t aware at the time of writing my previous article that the amendment to the snare banning bill still gave the MDIFW Commissioner the authority and discretion to employ the use of snares and agents to control coyotes to protect deer. Obviously this was never done and in my opinion reeks heavily of deer management neglect and may even border on criminal.
Under the conditions that exist and knowing full well that even beginning as late as 2008 at the conclusion of the first severe winter, the Commissioner had the authority to begin a program that certainly would have helped to protect deer and did nothing is inexcusable.
According to what V. Paul Reynolds wrote in his Northwoods Sporting Journal, comments and questions I am receiving make more sense.
Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Danny Martin suspended the [snaring] program over concerns that an anti-snare organization would bring a civil action against the state. At the time of his decision we were assured that the coyote control program would be restored in about a year when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) granted Maine an Incidental Take Permit.
Discussion has centered around whether coyote snaring could be reinstated once Maine received an “Incidental Take Permit” from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It now seems obvious that Maine didn’t even need an ITP and trappers were led to believe snaring would return with an ITP. At a minimum MDIFW could have used agents and a snare program to limit damage.
With a Legislative action that limits use of the snare for predator control, to implement a state wide snaring program again, appears to require Legislation action to repeal LD237.
While all this nonsense continues, the Maine deer herd continues to suffer. Makes little sense to me at all.
Tom Remington
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The year after the banning of snaring one trapper/ snarer was deployed. Coyotes had killed 10 ferrow deer in a pen in one night. The trapper Bill Harmon snared two adult coyotes and the killing stopped. Bill was the only snarer who snaed coyotes that year.
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I thought the argument behind the ‘Do it Yourself Movement’ in Coyote Control in Maine was summarized by Gerry Lavigne when he said that no Legislature in the Northeast would approve snaring. It appears that the Maine Legislature already did just that and all that is required to do it is willpower. Come November?