On Nov. 4, voters will be asked at the polls whether or not they want to ban the use of bait, dogs and traps in bear hunting except to protect property, public safety or research.

The nonprofit organization Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting spearheaded a drive for signatures and campaign to get the question before voters on the ballot Tuesday.

The issue has drawn interest from groups both in Maine and across the country. Campaigns supporting and opposing the ban have both raised more than $1 million, according to the Associated Press.

Bears are hunted in 32 states, and Maine is the only state that allows bear hunting with bait, dogs and traps. Twelve states allow bear baiting, and of those, seven allow both baiting and hounding. Eleven other states allow hounding, but not baiting, according to the AP.

Biologists from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and game wardens have publicly opposed the proposed ban.

According to information published by the Maine IF&W, there are more than 30,000 bears in Maine, and about 2,900 bears are harvested in the state each year. Ninety-three percent of these bears are harvested with the use of bait, dogs or traps. To keep the state’s bear population under control, between 3,500 and 4,500 bears need to be harvested each year, according to the department.

The department released a public service announcement online featuring Game Warden Kris MacCabe, who is the star of Animal Planet’s reality television show “North Woods Law.” Bear baiting is heavily regulated, said MacCabe in the video, and the regulations are strictly enforced by wardens. Bear bait must be at least a quarter of a mile away from a dwelling, and any remaining bait must be removed within 10 days after bear hunting season, he said.

“Bear hunting isn’t easy,” said MacCabe. “It takes an average of 15 days for a hunter to harvest a bear in the State of Maine.”

These methods of hunting keep bears at a manageable level, said MacCabe, and without it, there will be an increase in bears in the state.

Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine Executive Director David Trahan said Maine has one of the largest bear populations in the country, and one of the safest.

“Our organization trusts the Maine biologists,” he said.

He said state biologists and wardens are the experts, and are taking great risks in publicly supporting their opposition of the proposed ban.

Right now, bears have a “healthy respect” for humans and will run away from them, he said. Should the ban be passed, there will be an increase in the bear population, which could have dangerous consequences, such as bears raiding garbage cans and killing farm pigs.

Trahan said though some have portrayed bears to be gentle, berry-eating creatures, bears are predators, and they have a nose that is seven times more sensitive than that of a blood hound and can sniff out a fawn or baby moose. He said if the state can’t control the bear population, there will be a negative effect on the populations of deer and moose.

The Yes on Question 1 camp has just as much to say about the negative effect of keeping these hunting methods.

Katie Hansberry, spokeswoman for Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting, said in an email that baiting, hounding and trapping are not allowed when hunting deer or moose and shouldn’t be allowed when hunting bear.

“It is particularly cruel and unsporting to trap a bear in a snare, and allow it to suffer for hours until the trapper returns to shoot her at point-blank range,” she said, “or shoot a bear out of a tree after it’s been pursued to exhaustion by a pack of remotely tracked dogs, or to shoot a bear over a pile of rotting human junk food that the bear has been trained to return to day after day.”

She said she favors the ban because “hunting is a Maine tradition, but cruelty is not.”

Hansberry said the Maine bear population has grown 30 percent in the past 10 years, and nuisance complaints have increased 25 percent. Studies show that bear growth is regulated by the amount of food in their environment, said Hansberry.

Biddeford lawyer and Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting member Anita Coupe said she is voting in favor of the ban, because she thinks baiting, hounding and trapping are “cruel and unsporting and unnecessary.”

She said to see how the ban will affect the bear population, all one needs to do is look at data from states that have stopped the practice.

Coupe said other states that have banned baiting have seen a more stabilized bear population as well as an increase of bear hunting licenses and revenues.

She said dumping seven million pounds of junk food in the woods each year is an irresponsible and ineffective way to manage bears.

Not all bears that eat food from bait sites get shot, and with the increase of calories, comes a higher reproductive rate, said Coupe.

For more on both sides of the issue, voters can go to the campaigns’ official websites: fairbearhunt.com and savemainesbearhunt.com.

— The Associated Press contributed to this article. Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.