N.J. extends annual bear hunt

New Jersey officials declared an unprecedented four-day extension of the state's annual bear hunt.

This year's scheduled six-day hunt concluded on Saturday, but permit-holders may resume their hunting activities a half-hour prior to sunrise on Wednesday, according to a statement issued Sunday by the state Department of Environmental Protection Division of Fish and Wildlife.

The second phase of the hunt is scheduled to begin a half-hour prior to sunrise Wednesday and will continue until a half-hour after sunset on Saturday, Dec.19.

A new regulation this year from the DEP, which oversees the hunt, allows up to a four-day extension of the hunt this week, based on complex criteria for harvesting a percentage goal of the tagged bear population in New Jersey.

The New Jersey black bear population is estimated at 3,500. Northwestern New Jersey has one of the nation’s densest populations of black bears, a situation that is forcing bears to expand territory into more populated areas of the state.

The decision to extend the hunt was based on a review of data of bears that were tagged by the Division of Fish and Wildlife over the past year and brought by hunters to check stations within the bear hunting zones.

Of 133 tagged bears available to the Division of Fish and Wildlife for the purposes of calculating hunt harvest rates this year, 24 were brought to check stations, for an 18 percent harvest rate. The Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy allows for a season extension if the harvest rate during the six-day season finishes below 20 percent, or about 700 bears.

Totals posted on the Division of Fish and Wildlife website show that 472 bears were harvested through Saturday, with the highest totals on the first two days of the hunt. Fifty-two bears were taken in Morris County. The largest kill was in Sussex County, where 293 bears were harvested.

"The harvest numbers recorded this week have fallen short of our six-day wildlife management goal, which was arrived at through extensive science and research that has been ongoing since 2010,” Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said. “With the four-day extension, we will reach a harvest number that will keep the black bear population healthy and sustainable, while reducing the potential for conflicts with people.”

Environmental groups, some of which staged protests at check sites, continued to call for an end to the hunt.

“Enough is enough; 472 bears have been killed in less than a week," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "The hunt has done enough damage without managing bears. Extending it just means the continuation of bears dying for failed policies. ... This hunt has not been about managing bears or dealing with nuisance bears, it has been nothing more than a trophy hunt. We don’t have an education plan, we don’t have garbage management, and we don’t have the conservation officers needed to implement these things. All we have is more dead bears and the same nuisance problems as before.”

The new game code regulations were proposed earlier this year and adopted by the DEP on Nov. 16.

The DEP sold 8,200 permits this year, the most since all 10,000 were sold in 2010.

The bear hunting zones include all of Sussex, Warren, Morris and Hunterdon counties, as well as portions of Passaic, Somerset, Bergen and Mercer counties.

Hunters who have already harvested a bear this season are not eligible to continue hunting for bear during the four-day extension. For hunters continuing to hunt this season, there will be three mandatory bear check stations open for the remaining period. They are located at the Whittingham Wildlife Management Area in Newton, the Pequest Wildlife Management Area in Oxford, and the Green Pond Gold Course in Rockaway.

For more details on the bear check stations, visit: www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/bearchksta.htm.

For information on New Jersey’s 2015 black bear hunt, current and past harvest numbers, and game code amendments adopted on Nov. 16, visit: www.njfishandwildlife.com/bearseason_info.htm

For more information on black bears, including black bear biology and behavior, bear safety tips and bear education, visit: http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/bearfacts.htm

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@GannettNJ.com.