NJ bear hunt starting Monday, may extend four days

The annual state black bear hunt begins Monday and lasts through Saturday.

During the 2014 hunting week, 272 total bears were harvested, with more than half coming on the first day of the hunt. Thirty bears were killed in Morris County, a distant third to Warren County at 60, and Sussex Count with 148.

The hunting zone, approved in 2010, encompasses about 1,000 square miles in northwestern New Jersey, including Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Warren, Hunterdon and Passaic counties and a small portion of Bergen County.

The controversial hunt was unanimously approved by the New Jersey Fish and Game Council in August and signed by Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin as part of the DEP’s black bear management policy.

The amended bear management policy includes a proposed option to add a four-day extension to the hunting season the following week if objectives are not met, and expands zones in areas where bear incidents have been increasing. The expanded zones include portions of Morris plus Passaic and Mercer counties. The hunting zone in Morris County includes all areas west of Route 287. Bear hunting is also extended to all of Somerset County, with the exception of Franklin.

Other amendments, including adding a second six-day black bear hunt in October and giving hunters the ability to kill two bears instead of one, won’t take effect until the 2016 season.

The policy, according to DEP officials, was developed after extensive research and review of five bear hunting seasons that have taken place since 2010. The Division of Fish and Wildlife determined that expanded hunting opportunities are necessary to reduce the population and to reduce conflicts with people.

That research included surveys, captures of previously tagged bears, den studies, reproduction analyses and density analyses that confirmed northwestern New Jersey continues to have one of the nation’s densest black bear populations and one of its most productive, with larger litter sizes and high cub survival rates.

Controversial hunt

Many oppose the annual bear hunt, including animal and environmental activism groups New Jersey Sierra Club, the League of Humane Voters, and Friends of Animals, the latter of which held a protest of the hunt Thursday afternoon on the steps of the State House in Trenton.

“Because New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie lies, black bears continue to die,” Friends of Animals said in a statement. “Since 2010, there’s been a massacre of 1,871 black bears in NJ.”

Commissioner Martin contends the hunt is a crucial part of controlling the black bear population.

“Hunting is an important tool in maintaining an ecological balance with our black bear population and is necessary to reduce the potential for conflicts between bears and people, particularly in northwestern New Jersey, which has the state’s densest bear population,” Martin said. “The comprehensive policy we have adopted is based on the most up-to-date science and population estimates, and continues to stress the importance of research and public education.”

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, disagreed with Martin.

“The DEP has doubled down on their failed policy," he said. "They adopted another bear management plan that doesn’t manage bears but is just an excuse for an expanded hunt. They’re expanding the hunts that don’t work into new areas of New Jersey and allowing people to hunt more often and kill more bears. These changes are only going to increase bear incidents. Instead of more hunting, we need a real management plan, one that includes strong education and uses warning signs in the region, education materials at trail heads, enforcing not feeding bears, and garbage management. We need to put funding back into bear management.  We need more conservation managers to work on education programs, a proper management plan, and bear aversion therapy to reduce these incidents. Increasing the hunts has not worked in the past and will not work to reduce bear incidents.”

Tittel said the state should put more funding into bear management training as opposed to the hunt.

“This hunt is unbearable and does nothing to address bear related issues. Hunting bears is obviously not working to decrease human-bear encounters. What we need is a comprehensive Bear Management Plan and trained officers who can implement it,” Tittel said. “We need to put funding back into bear management.  We need more conservation managers to work on education programs, a proper management plan that includes garbage control, and bear aversion therapy to reduce these incidents. Increasing the hunts has not worked in the past and will not work to reduce bear incidents.”

Permits and check-ins

Area-specific permits are needed to join the hunt and are available at http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/permit_info.htm#otc.

According to DEP’s website, 4,876 permits are still available in all five hunting zones, including 4,802 in the four zones that include parts of Morris County. Nearly 8,000 permits were sold in 2014.

All bears harvested must be taken immediately to a check-in station, which are open noon to 7 p.m.  If the bear is killed too late to be brought back to a station, it must be reported immediately to the Northern Region Office of the Bureau of Law Enforcement at 908-735-8240.

Morris County has two check-in stations. The Green Pond Golf Course, 765 Green Pond Road/Route 513 in Rockaway is open all six days of the hunt. The Black River Wildlife Management Area on 275 North Road in Chester is also open on Monday, Dec. 7, and Saturday, Dec. 12.

Another popular local check in station is the Whittingham Wildlife Management Area on 148 Fredon-Springdale Road in Newton.

The bear hunting season runs concurrently with the six-day firearm dear season.

Beginning last year, DEP officials started handing out a recipe guide for how to cook black bear meat in an attempt to attract more hunters. Recipes include bear bacon (or bearkin, as the cookbook says), spicy bratwurst-style bear sausage, sweet and sour bear pot roast, bear gumbo, black bear ossobuco, and bear fat pie crust.

The full cookbook is also available at http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/bear_recipeguide.pdf.

The Division of Fish and Wildlife utilized studies conducted by Penn State University along with population estimate methodologies known as the Lincoln-Petersen Index and linear regression modeling to conservatively estimate the size of the black bear population in northwestern New Jersey at 3,500, about the same as when the hunt was first authorized in 2010.

The population has not decreased significantly because reproduction rates, known as recruitment, have exceeded mortality from hunting and natural causes. The number of bears harvested in the five hunts has steadily dropped from 592 in the first season, to fewer than 300 animals in subsequent seasons, due in large part to poor weather at that time of year and a more wary bear population.

In addition, the December hunt coincides with the time when bears are becoming less active and beginning to den. The December hunt, concurrent with the annual firearm deer hunting season, was purposely planned for this time of year to be conservative as biologists assessed the first five years of hunting.

The Division of Fish and Wildlife says it is expanding education efforts in the hunting zone to help residents and local officials understand bear behavior and reduce potential for conflicts.

For all information on the 2015 NJ Black Bear Hunt, go to http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/bearseason_info.htm, or go to www.njfishandwildlife.com/bearfacts.htm to learn more about black bears in New Jersey.

William Westhoven contributed to this story.Staff Writer Michael Izzo: 973-428-6636;mizzo@GannettNJ.com