The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1923-01-04
CHANGES ASKED FOR OR RECOMMENDED
IN INLAND FISH AND GAME LAWS
Sc ssion Of Eghty.Frst Legislature will Convene
This Week Interesting Communications

Ilation, IL protected, and the augment
ed chance of getting a bear in hunt
ing trip in the Maine woods. that the
state could easily afford to reimburse
the farmer or other loser for the real
ly slight damages caused by bears,
in the same manner as damage to
crops by deer.
We must remember that Maine is
a big state, and We have great areas
of forest land many miles from farms
where bruin could roam, propagate,
and cause no damage to any one. He
is quiet, secluded old fellow and
not bad natured when undisturbed,
and why should the many extra thou
sands of dollars that his presence in
our woods would undoubtedly cease
to be brought into the state be turned
aside because bruin likes an occasion
al mutton chop or nice fat ham or
young porker (most of us are just like
bruin in this particularly and the
small pecuniary damages that the
state may have to pay in consequence
We all agree that America has
wantonly wasted many OF her natur-
al resources, her forests and its in
habitants being the principal suffer
ers thereby, and it is high time every
American who loves his native land,
and what real American does not,
will realize that wastefulness must be
stopped, and stopped very soon. We
have got to face the problem sooner
or later and when we do let us re-
member that the American black bear
was here many ages before we came.
He was an old timer in his forest
haunts even when the world was new.
God created him to have his chance
to live and multiply and he is an
American. Let US protect old bruin,
allowing an open season only during
the time of deer hunting. Let us take
off bounty, wrongfully placed on an
honest old resident of Maine. Let
us know that our children and our
chfldren's children will not see old
bruin swept from the haunbs God
placed him in. Give the bear the
chance he deserves, take off a mis-
placed and unjust reward for his des-
truction and make him what he so
justly deserves to be called the gami-
est of all the game in our grand old
state of Maine"
In this connection We quote chap
ter from the annual report of the
Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and
Game filed last June which is now in
! press:
divers opinions are expressed in
public and private, through the press
and by letter, in relation TO the value
of Bruin as game animal. In many
Of foc nf hn IIninn acnnpiul1V nppat
game states trying to rival Maine, the
bear is considered the best of big game
| and stands at the head of protected
animals and Maine is ridiculed for
not only allowing Bruin to he slain
in the summer season but actually
paying a bounty for having him killed.
/ Some claim that the State can well
afford to pay for a few sheep killed,
/ just as it does now, but that instead
of paying bounty bears should not
| be slaughtered, unless doing damage,
until fall, when their fur is valuable
and the whole animal more of an
asset to the state. A young man, in
j the fall of 1920, showed the Commits
sioner check of SAL "a, received from
a Boston firm which fixed its own
price, for one bear that he had shot
in his fall hunting. In the summer
season it would have been worth So,
to be received out of the State Treas
ury at the expense of Maine tax pay
ers Some bears driven by hunger
no doubt learn to kill sheep the same
as dogs. In the northern part of
I Oxford County noted for its bears, the
writer was calling on farmer, with
flock of one hundred sheep grazing
in the pasture nearby, when he asked
the farmer how he could keep sheep
up there among the Oxford bears, he
replied 81 never lost sheep by bears
in my life. If people take care of
their dogs my sheep are all right
and he kept his rifle loaded, not for
bears, but for dogs.
1t is for the Legislature to say whe
Their the bounty shall be retained.
Bears do more damage in some sec
tions than Others. No one wants to
injure the farmer or retard the sheep
raising industry that all would like
to see revived in Maine.
/ Many believe that removing the
/ bounty would make no difference and
| that Bruin would be hunted at a sea-
son of the year when he would be of
much more value than in the summer
months. AS well, they say might you
| hunt the fox, trap the beaver or any
other animal, in the summer months
when of no particular value, that
might do more or less damage to the
/ farmer, and further that all protect
ed animals except beaver can be slain
Ill Ia,,. h.
! ed by closed season.
II desire to supplement my annual
report by the statement that from my
recent experience at----lake am
convinced that the "One doe law" or
cat Least One Buck Law" which is
now in force is the most harmful bit
of legislation that has been passed
in our list of laws for the protection
of game. There are great many
irresponsible persons who enter our