In Maine, we have trained wild bears to seek easy human food instead of working to find their own. Since all wild animals produce more young when food is plentiful, we have thus created a problem: Too many bears, which also follow scent trails of human food to houses, and which we kill by various means, some cruel.

This serves people who want to shoot a big wild animal without risk or effort, not for food but to get a ‘trophy’ to show, without of course mentioning that the bear was immobilized in a trap or had its nose buried in human junk food.

Hunting guides: You will not lose your living by the YES vote. People are now traveling distances for a last look at true wildlife — whale watches, African camera safaris, grizzlies at salmon runs. These people will need your skills to show them how bears live as nature intends, which also regulates their numbers. Real hunters will also come, who seek the ancient art and ethic of the hunt and scorn the traps, GPS dogs, and piles of garbage in our Maine woods.

We have created a problem. We can begin to fix it by voting YES on One.

Eleanor Mattern
Harpswell