NJ Bear Hunt Renewal Imminent, Could Continue Through 2027

NEW JERSEY — The New Jersey Fish and Game Council will vote Wednesday on a measure re-authorizing five more years of a regulated black bear hunt in certain parts of the state, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Gov. Phil Murphy reinstated the bear hunt last December after a one-year absence, as an emergency action that expired this January. State officials said they brought the hunt back as the animal’s population increases, and there were rising numbers of reported bear encounters.

Animal rights groups filed a lawsuit, which courts ultimately rejected, and the state said hunters killed 114 bears in total once the shortened season began.

When bear-hunting season could return in New Jersey

The Fish and Game Council is scheduled to vote on the matter on Sept. 6, with a meeting at 1 p.m. This comes after a period of public comment last winter, and after the council already approved some amendments to the Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy (CBBMP).

If adopted, the policy would provide for an annual black bear hunting season, divided into two one-week periods, in designated parts of seven New Jersey counties.

Animal rights groups are calling for a halt on the hunt's renewal, saying December's culling of the population was "revealed to be a sham" and that the hunt is "meaningless" if the state does not also focus on non-lethal management efforts.

In July, the Fish and Game Council voted to approve amendments to the CBBMP that would authorize an annual, regulated hunt of the bears “under appropriate conditions,” according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The policy would also prohibit the harvest of bears less than 75 pounds live weight, as well as adult bears accompanying these young bears; and prohibit the hunting of bears within 300 feet of a baited area.

The July vote followed the period of public comment on the proposed rule changes, where the state said it received 9,538 submissions — the vast majority of them in opposition to the hunt, according to state records. September's vote is on the formal adoption documents for amendments to the CBBMP.

The state received 1,620 comments in support of the proposed CBBMP changes, and 2,067 comments plus 4,857 mailed post cards in opposition to the proposed changes, according to a presentation in July. The public comment period lasted from Dec. 5, 2022 through Feb. 3, 2023.

Under the proposed rules, the hunting season would be divided into two one-week hunting segments: one in October, and one in December, said DEP press director Larry Hajna. The bear hunts would take place "in designated zones encompassing all or parts of Bergen, Hunterdon, Mercer, Morris, Passaic, Somerset and Sussex counties,” Hajna told Patch.

These rules would expire in May 2028, as Patch reported previously. Therefore, if the policy is approved, bear hunts could take place twice a year from 2023-2027 – if those “appropriate conditions” for hunting are met.

The Commissioner of the NJ DEP, Shawn LaTourette, also has to approve the CBBMP for it to be effective.

The Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy also outlines non-lethal management actions for black bears, as well as lethal ones, “to ensure the sustainability of the species, provide for public safety, and reduce incidences of bear-human conflicts,” Hajna added.

If the Fish and Game Council approves the rule adoption document on Wednesday, it will be published in the New Jersey Register on Oct. 2 and then be formally adopted.

Upon adoption, Segment A of the bear hunt would take place from Oct. 9 through Oct. 14, Hajna told Patch. Segment B would take place Dec. 4 through Dec. 9, with an extension Dec. 13 through Dec. 16 "if certain harvest objectives necessary for population and conservation management are not met," he said.

State said bear encounters drove hunt's return; activists question numbers

The black bear hunt made a return in December after a one-year absence. Gov. Phil Murphy had originally promised to cancel the hunt, and did so in the 2021 season. But he reversed course last winter after an increase in bear encounters, and as Fish and Game officials said the population had risen above 3,100 bears.

Murphy advised that the Fish and Game Council to reinstate an "emergency" hunting period. The council approved the hunt's emergency reinstatement at Nov. 15's meeting.

But three animal advocacy groups — the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, the Humane Society of the United States, and Friends of the Animals — challenged the decision, and called for non-lethal methods of bear management.

The animal welfare groups claimed that the Division of Fish and Wildlife inflated the estimated number of bears in New Jersey. The coalition also challenged the legality of the New Jersey Fish and Game Council's emergency rule, which officials adopted on Nov. 15, 2022 without the usual public comment period.

The appeals court judge was not ultimately convinced that the state violated due process for emergency rulings, and allowed the hunt to go forward.

Last December, hunters killed 114 bears for a 7 percent harvest rate, which fell short of the state's goal of 20 percent.

The APLNJ issued a new “call to action for bears” in August 2023, and is continuing to advocate for the hunt being cancelled. APLNJ legal director Doris Lin said the organization is urging the Murphy administration to "do the right thing and cancel this bear hunt."

The APLNJ said the council "inflated the bear population estimates," and that hunt data shows the population was less than half of the Fish and Game Council's 2022 estimates.

"The 2022 emergency hunt was based on scare tactics and exaggerated bear population estimates, and so is the current bear hunt proposal," Lin said in a statement.

APLNJ executive director Angi Metler said the council "has no interest in reducing bear complaints because they use the complaints to justify their trophy hunts.”

The New Jersey Sierra Club also said it does not support the hunt's renewal, saying Gov. Phil Murphy "has really failed to live up to his promise he made back in 2017 which was to impose a moratorium on the bear hunt."

"The New Jersey Sierra Club did not support the emergency rule for the hunting of Black Bears back in December of 2022 and does not support another 5 years of bear hunts," said Conservation Manager Taylor McFarland. "We understand that hunting is necessary at times to balance the ecosystem, however, without an actual bear management plan that deals with protection of habitats, garbage, and educating people in bear country, the NJ hunt is meaningless."

State officials tallied 2,212 bear-related reports in 2022 — 182.1 percent more than the year prior. That included 1,753 reports of damage and nuisance, which increased 203.3 percent from 2021.

As of Aug. 21, state officials have reported 793 damage and nuisance incidents, down from 1,133 at this point in 2022. More than 350 of the incidents this yer have been in Sussex County, state data shows. Overall in 2023, bear sightings and damage reports have declined more than 30 percent compared to 2022.

Several encounters with bears have made the headlines this year — a young black bear chased a pair of dogs in Hunterdon County back in May, as CBS New York reported. And in June, police officers in Plainfield killed a bear that became aggressive as officers were trying to coax it away from a nearby school and day care.

New Jersey has one documented human death from bear in state history — a 22-year-old Rutgers University student killed in 2014 while hiking in West Milford, Passaic County.

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This article contains reporting from Patch’s Josh Bakan.