N.J. Bear Hunt Season to Double in 2016

By JASON KOESTENBLATT (Patch Staff)

The oft-contentious New Jersey bear hunt, which has run one week in December for the last five years, is set to double its timeframe in 2016.

Nine members of the Fish and Game Council unanimously voted this week to extend the bruin culling by adding a six-day hunt in October 2016 as well as extending the December season by as many as four days in the event of inclement weather.

Once Department of Environmental Commissioner Bob Martin signs the policy, the expanded hunt will officially take effect next year.

Another major aspect of the policy is allowing hunters to kill two bears per season, rather than one, as the guidelines stated in previous years. More vaguely, the policy calls for extended bear education as well.

Of course the hunt and its expansion has its detractors, the foremost of which is the Sierra Club, an animal rights organization in New Jersey.

“New Jersey’s bear management plan is deficient,” said Sierra Club head Jeff Tittle. “Does [DEP] educate residents about bear-proofing, protecting habitats, or bear aversion? No, it doesn’t.

“The hunt hasn’t controlled the aggressive or nuisance bears,” Tittle continued. “The vote just doubles down on already failed policies.”

Tittle said hunters are heading into wooded areas where bears aren’t necessarily bothering the general population, rather than focusing on the aggressive bears that have repeatedly shown up in yards and neighborhoods.

The 2014 black bear hunt resulted in 272 kills across designated hunting areas. Sussex County was home to 148 of those kills.

That number was up slightly from the 2013 hunt, which yielded 251 kills; 285 in 2012; 469 in 2011; and the high mark in the hunt’s inaugural year with 592 kills.

For the first time in New Jersey history, a person was attacked and killed by a black bear in 2014. The man, Darsh Patel, 22, a Rutgers University student, was hiking with friends in West Milford when a black bear began following them. The group split up, and hours later police found Patel killed with the bear just a few yards away. The bear was subsequently euthanized.

What do you think of the expanded hunt? Is it necessary? Unnecessary? Tell us in the comments.

Photo Credit: Liz Alexander