Six-day bear hunt gets OK

Posted on Wed, Nov. 16, 2005
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The DEP chief cited public safety in authorizing the Dec. 5-10 hunt.

By Elisa Ung

Inquirer Trenton Bureau


TRENTON - Citing a potentially dangerous increase in complaints of bears meeting humans, New Jersey's environmental chief yesterday announced that the state will hold a bear hunt in early December.

Bradley Campbell, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, authorized the Dec. 5-10 hunt as part of a bear-management plan that he described as more conservative than those in previous years.

The plan drew criticism from Gov.-elect Jon S. Corzine, who said it did not emphasize education and habitat protection, and from animal-rights activists, who said the hunt would not cull the bears causing the most problems: the "nuisance bears" in more densely populated areas.

Campbell said that "public safety and sound wildlife management are the winners" because of his decision. "I think the losers are those... who ideologically oppose hunting under any and all circumstances."

Thousands of bears live in New Jersey. They are concentrated in the state's northwestern corner, but some have been spotted in South Jersey.

The hunt will take place in a roughly 1,600-square-mile area in North Jersey.

Since taking office in 2001, Campbell has battled alternately with bear-hunt supporters and foes. In 2003, he supported the state's first hunt in more than three decades, which killed 328 bears. Then he fought last year's hunt to the state Supreme Court, which supported his opposition.

In a letter to Ernest P. Hahn, chairman of the state Fish and Game Council, Campbell said bear-intrusion complaints, "which subsided after the 2003 hunt, have increased significantly."

Yesterday, in a conference call with Hahn, Campbell said the goal of the hunt was to stabilize the population at 2002 levels. Earlier plans, he said, called for killing many more bears.

His policy, which is valid for the next five years, gives the state environmental chief the power to stop the hunt if it meets bear population goals.

"A hunt is a legitimate and appropriate tool for managing the population," Campbell said. "My position has been the same consistently: We'll have a hunt when we need one, and we won't when we don't."

In a statement, Corzine spokeswoman Ivette Mendez said the plan "does not adequately address" issues such as educating the public, reducing open garbage and food sources, and requiring the state's Green Acres program to protect existing habitat.

"Jon Corzine has stated his support for a comprehensive bear-management plan that will address the key factors in controlling the bear population: food and habitat," Mendez said.

Jeff Tittel, director of the Sierra Club's New Jersey chapter, agreed. He said the state would do better to formulate educational plans, including instructions on how to bear-proof homes and garbage cans.

He said that the state had no money to carry out a bear hunt and that Campbell was pushing the plan through before Corzine could enter office in January. He said environmentalists would study whether they could sue to stop the hunt or lobby acting Gov. Richard J. Codey, who has said he would defer to the DEP, to step in.

A hunt proponent, Tony Celebrezze, director of state services for the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, said this year's hunt would cut down on nuisance complaints.

"I think the bear population is a great example of what sportsmen have done for wildlife in New Jersey," Celebrezze said, referring to the 2003 hunt. "Who'd have thought the bear population would have rebounded the way it did?"

In Pennsylvania, wildlife managers report the black bear population is booming in counties across the Delaware River from North Jersey and New York. The state's regular three-day hunt, which begins Monday, has been supplemented with an additional six days in those counties.

Pennsylvania has held bear hunts in all but four years since 1905, rarely with controversy. The six biggest harvests were recorded the last seven years. Last month, the state Game Commission gave preliminary approval to an additional two-day season - bow and arrow only - next fall.