NJ Bears Face Extreme Population Demise

Coming NJ Bear Hunts Cruel Unnecessary

Fear after 5 years in a row with hundreds of bears dispatched by hunting, (roadkills and illegal poaching) the upcoming October bow season, another another December Bear Hunt, our remaining already depleted bear population will be virtually eliminated. New Jersey has a prime core habitat of very concentrated and compressed nature. Hundreds of hunters spread out into its landscapes will easily injure the remaining bear colony, or remnants of it. Bow hunters always speak of the bears they see while sitting in the woods during deer season; turkey hunters say the same during their season. This mass ambush of concentrated hunters in a concentrated compress habitat spells a great demise in our native black bear population, as in the early 1970's when the bear hunt was ended do to no bears to hunt because of the over-hunting.

Governor Christie's NJDEP/NJFGW have chosen hunting as their only method of bear management. There is a certain meanness is all of the Christie administrations outdoor; or environmental policies. Attacks on Highlands and Pine-lands Water protection Acts. The now attempt to lumber the trees of Sparta Mountain, the very heart of New Jerseys remaining Highlands Resources and States aesthetic beauty. His continued allowance of sprawl, rather than redevelopment, allowing more office and malls to be build on environmentally sensitive landscapes. Ignoring science for advancement of private economic interest over the public trust. His failure to address public housing will also lead to more land destruction. Our New Jersey will be permanently injured and for no just cause or sound reason other than short term jobs and more future abandoned failed developments.
No official has demonstrated more his lack of love for his State or Homeland. It appears this meanness and self centered interest extends to the bears of New Jersey, their right to life within their habitats remaining is being expunged. The policy shows rather an unwritten policy of we'd rather have and prefer no bears at all, as they costs us more than they are worth having.
Most Governors while in office, take at least one trip down a river, in a canoe; say down the Delaware, participate in opening day for trout, and show up for some clean-up in a littered landscape. This governor has done none of the mentioned.

When New Jerseys bears became extinct in the early 1970's it took 33 years of not hunting in NJ, and 3-years in the adjacent counties of Pennsylvania in order to bring back the populations' density so as it was once again, vital and able to allow hunting. This revival of NJ's bear colonies took place with the help of funding from Defenders of Wildlife, private citizens, universities in conjunction with NJ Fish Game and Wildlife. Previous Governors and administrations have shown much more enthusiasm and love for NJ remaining wild-places and resources. After 33 years the hunting was allowed in increments and alternative years, year biology was understood and the animals right to life and our right to experiencing it in our wild landscapes was insured, not just for hunters but for all.

It appears our States Bear Population will again be extinct. Higher bear densities are possible in prime core habitats, however this is where the trophy/sport hunters wish to take their picks. It would be great if for example the National Park Service at Delaware Water Gap declared their domain off-limits to the up-coming hunts scheduled to attempt to maintain a higher bear density in an already depleted core population of remaining bears, most of which their previous population dynamic has been killed. There is no denying the present NJDEP bear management is purely for sport and a genocide of the remaining species. Our New Jersey now belongs entirely to the senseless schemes of development, in favor of a private over a public way of having our New Jersey stay beautiful, sustainable and full of outdoor wonders.
Ironic the way so many people allege to love animals domestic animals, or property, while the real fellow inhabitants of this planet the wild animals are seen as some disenfranchised tribes, not having those rights to life. In New Jersey despite a long practiced hunting ethic not to kill the young, bear cubs are allowed, in fact encouraged to be killed along with the their mothers. This practice instills cruelty in the hunter and is expressed in the recently found, No Apology Ethic, where as in ancient and recent historical hunting societies the animal's spirit was always acknowledged respected and apologized to in prayer. This no apology phenomena detracts and takes us further away from our own humanity.

Invested with mystery by reason of their power and their strangeness, were held in great respect as quasi-gods and were approached with caution and thus acquired the character of sacredness. They keep our landscapes sacred, they are part of the last of the real world here in New Jersey. Bear are big medicine and should be managed in a more enlightened and respectful manner; hunting has its place but should not dominate the gift of citizen bear. The NJ Bear right to life is not about hunters verses animal rights advocates, but about keeping our New Jersey Landscapes beautiful and sacred. George Washington slept on a bear-skin.