PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 25, 2021
There is a bill – L.D. 1702 – that has been introduced in three forms in the Legislature this year. The bill includes the famous Land for Maine’s Future component, which unfortunately continues to drag along a kill mandate: the requirement that lands acquired with the bond funding must be open to trapping and hunting. No safe spots for hikers, kayakers or the unfortunate animals who happen to call it home. There are many who say, “Well, trapping and sport hunting are a longtime Maine tradition.” That may be. Slavery was a longtime tradition, too. Burning witches at the stake was also around for a couple of hundred years. Did that make it right or sensible? Please contact your legislators and ask them to simply remove the kill mandate from Land for Maine’s Future, which is included now in L.D. 1702. ~ Anna Weiss, Brunswick