Black bear hunt begins with decreased bruin population

Bear activists say the fall in bear population, and in human-bear encounters, is evidence the hunt isn't needed for a third consecutive year.

Hunters Anthony Lingenfelter Jr., second left, 40, and his father Anthony Lingenfelter Sr., 66, both of Howell Township, N.J., look on as Kim Tinnes, left, and Ross Shramko, with New Jersey's Division of Fish and Wildlife, take measurements of a 327.5-pound male black bear at the Whittingham Wildlife Management Area in Fredon, N.J., in 2010.
AP File Photo

Black bear populations have decreased in the past few years, prompting some to label New Jersey's annual black bear hunt a success and others to decry it as a trophy pursuit.

Hunting begins for a third consecutive year today in "bear country," the sections of northern New Jersey where the bruins are most prominent, according to the New Jersey Department of  Environmental Protection. It's a 1,000-square-mile hunting area north of Interstate 78 and west of Interstate 287.

The department places the bruin population in "bear country" between 2,800 and 3,000, down from about 3,400 in 2010.

Also decreasing are the number of nuisance complaints and dangerous bear incidents, the DEP reports. DEP officials said the data show promising improvement since the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife started its Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy three years ago.

"The early results of this coordinated effort are promising," DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said in a statement. "But we must stay the course on our comprehensive policy to further reduce bear and human encounters and property damage, while easing public concerns."

Some opponents of the hunt, however, say the numbers undermine the state's rationale for the hunt.

"DEP's own data is showing that bear complaints are down, nuisance complaints are down, and bear sightings are down," Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said in a statement. "Their reasoning for the hunt is to get rid of nuisance bears. If that is no longer the purpose, then this is nothing more than a trophy hunt."

More than 6,500 permits have been issued for bear hunting in Warren and Sussex counties and parts of Hunterdon, Somerset, Passaic and Bergen counties for the six-day hunt. DEP officials are anticipating the 2012 harvest will be similar to 2011, when 469 were killed, about 20 percent of which were considered nuisance bears.

The New Jersey Animal Protection League released a report last week about the dangers of bear baiting, including how the practice teaches bears to associate humans with food.

Susan Kehoe, a bear activist who lives in Sussex County, said baiting bears will likely be the only way hunters kill the creatures this season due to the dwindling bear population. 

Kehoe, who was acquitted in September of charges she intentionally fed black bears at her Vernon Township home, has lived in bear country for the past 30 years and said this was the first year she didn't see any bears in her backyard. She said she's come to know and love the animals.

"Fish and Wildlife may be able to tell the age of the bear," she said. "But I know them by experience, by living with them."