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2003 New Jersey Bear Hunt
A Wildlife Management Success
by George P. Howard, Conservation Director, NJ Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association January 2004 Newsletter)
December 13,2003 marked the final day of New Jersey’s first black bear hunt in over 30 years, a hunt which for years many thought would never occur. The 300 bear taken by sport hunters, from an area north of Rte 78 and west of RTE 287, are a big part of an attempt by the New Jersey Fish & Game Council and Division of Fish and Wildlife to impose scientific management on New Jersey’s heretofore uncontrolled black bear population. That the hunt came off at all is due to the efforts of many people, the aforementioned Council and Division, bear biologists from New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, the sportsmen of New Jersey, and last but not least New Jersey’s Governor Jim McGreevey and his DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell.
When one looks back on the tremendous amount of newspaper space, radio and television time, and public demonstrations that the New Jersey bear hunt attempt generated, one is forced to realize that this is New Jersey and that New Jersey is somehow different from our neighboring states. At the same time that New Jersey bear hunters were harvesting a total of 300 bears from a population that exceeds 3,000, Pennsylvania hunters had just taken almost 3,000 bears and New York hunters over 700 with hardly any media involvement at all. In particular there was none of the hysterical, right in your face, confrontations that our Governor, Commissioner and Fish & Wildlife Director were subjected to. Many of the people behind the anti-hunt efforts, both from within and from without the state, really can’t help themselves as anti-hunting, anti animal use, is really a religion with them. It is suspected, however, that some, who attempted to stop the New Jersey hunt, Frank Lautenberg for example, had other motives behind their opposition.
Looking at the history of the Black Bear in New Jersey, from a population low of less than 50 bears in the early 1970’s, to making the black bear a game animal and subsequently closing of the hunting season on bears in 1972 by the Fish & Game Council-along with the effort to increase bear populations by improving bear habitat thru public acquisition of open space and the stopping of incidental killing of black bears by New Jersey citizens - one comes to realize just what a wildlife success story New Jersey’s rapidly increasing bear population has become. Also a look at the hysteria and political activity which accompanied recent attempts to obtain some control over our rapidly increasing bear population, points out the difficulty of trying to manage large animal populations when confronted by the urban mentality, where black bears are merely cuddly teddy bears and many people get their knowledge of wildlife from TV and Walt Disney.
In 2000, after many years of collecting research data on New Jersey bears and attempting to deal with an almost exponentially increasing bear population which was forcing bears south and east almost to Newark and Trenton, the Fish & Game Council attempted to conduct a very limited sport hunt for black bears, the control mechanism used by every State experiencing too many bears, in the same area involved with this years successful hunt. The hue and cry from the anti-hunt people, the same people opposing this year’s hunt, was tremendous, to the extent that our former Governor Christie Whitman and her Republican Leader in the Assembly finally caved in and forced the Fish and Game Council members to cancel the hunt.
The bulk of the credit for putting New Jersey’s bear program on the track of scientific management utilizing sport hunters for population control, and being able to cull 300 bears from our rapidly increasing population, goes primarily to those in political office today, particularly the Governor and Commissioner, who this time had the courage to stand up to the threats, insults, and misinformation regarding bears being espoused by the fanatical, hysterical opposition. All those interested in the scientific management of New Jersey’s wildlife, and in particular the New Jersey sportsmen, should take a minute to phone, fax or mail Governor McGreevey and Commissioner Campbell thanking them their support for the 2003 black bear hunt and their commitment to scientific wildlife management.