With respect to Maine’s federally protected Canada lynx, there is suddenly good news and bad news.

The good news is — or was — that the feds finally, after 6 years of outlandish dithering, recently granted the state an Incidental Take Permit (ITP) on lynx. Basically, the ITP is a binding agreement between the state and the federal government. It states that the state may allow commercial trapping for other fur-bearing critters in lynx territory as long as no more than three lynx are accidentally taken (killed) during the 15-year period of the agreement. Any more than three and the state is out of compliance.

Well, guess what? The ink was barely dry on the ITP signatures when, as luck would have it, two lynx were accidentally taken lethally by trappers, in the same week no less! That’s the bad news. The additional bad news is that state wildlife managers felt obliged to immediately shut down all trapping in most of the North Woods.

The Maine Trappers Association is putting on a good face, but you can bet that most serious trappers are really torqued. Do they have reason to be? The hard facts suggest that there is no need for either this state-mandated trapping hiatus or even federal protection of the Canada lynx, in Maine at least.

According to Gerry Lavigne, field biologist for the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, “lynx populations have been increasing in Maine for the past 25 years.” Although wildlife officials are hesitant to site an exact population figure for lynx, a number of woodsmen and trappers are convinced that in the north woods there are more lynx per square mile than whitetail deer!

There is a curious contrast between how the state assesses the lynx compared with the feds. The state, which has a much better handle on lynx habitat and population frequency than the feds, has determined that the lynx does not warrant a listing as either state-threatened or state-endangered. The feds, on the other hand, list the Maine lynx as “federally-threated.”

Of course, all of this springs from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) which, as Lavigne points out, ” is vulnerable to abuse by those who pursue an anti-hunting/trapping or anti-forest management agenda.”

For federal purposes, Maine has been lumped in with 14 others states.( In some of these the lynx may be legitimately endangered). If the feds weren’t so politically motivated, they would simply remove Maine from the 14-state recovery area. It may be that they are too intimidated by litigation threats from well-heeled animal rights groups, or perhaps they do, as some suspect, have an anti-trapping agenda being manifested within the ranks of their policymakers.

In a sane world, the lynx, like the once-endangered bald eagle, would simply be delisted from the ESA. According to Lavigne this can’t be done until state wildlife officials create a state-level management plan for lynx.

Here is the irony: If this process were started today, we would be lucky to see a conclusion of the delisting process within the decade. By then, hare populations will no doubt be waning and, in turn, the lynx as well.

Sadly, trappers in Maine will become a threatened species, more so than the lynx. Anti-trapping activists like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and others are wasting their money. If they wait long enough, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will do the job for them.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WQVM-FM 101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is paul@sportingjournal.com . He has two books “A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook” and his latest, “Backtrack.”