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NJ Bear Hunting Poll

New Jersey Takes Step Towards Bear Hunt

3/11/10

A recent decision by the New Jersey Fish and Game Council (FGC) moves the state closer to its first bear hunt in five years.

On March 9, the FGC approved a management plan for the state’s black bear population that recommends a six-day hunt in December. The plan now moves to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for a public comment period prior to a final decision being made by acting DEP Commissioner, Bob Martin.

"We are pleased the FGC voted to recommend a hunting season as part of the management plan,” said Rob Sexton, U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation (USSAF) vice president for government affairs. “We will continue working with state officials to keep moving this badly needed plan forward.”

The FGC proposal is the latest step in a multi-year effort to address growing concerns in New Jersey about increasing bear-human interactions since the hunt was arbitrarily ended in 2006 by then DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson.

In response, the USSAF, along with Safari Club International and the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, filed a lawsuit against the state to challenge the former Commissioner’s decision to stop the bear hunt. The state Supreme Court refused to consider an emergency injunction that would have compelled the Commissioner to proceed with the 2006 hunt.

Since then, Assembly Members Gary Chiusano (R- Frankford Township) and Alison Littell McHose (R- Franklin) have repeatedly called for the Administration to reevaluate its bear hunting ban as the number of incidents between humans and bears continued to increase. Those same legislators also introduced Assembly Bill 181 clarifying that the FGC has sole authority to implement and regulate black bear hunting in New Jersey while prohibiting the DEP Commissioner from blocking those approved by Council.

57% no when I just voted?? I don't get that, all the reports I've seen point to the fact that there is a huge population and they have very little respect for humans. Not to mention property destruction that they inflict. Hard to understand the large 'no' vote.

Think about it buckeye: mostly urban folk with no real understanding of game poplulation control. they're coming at it from the Disney angle.

maybe some of the housewives will get it when they lose a little one to Yogi.

+1
I think they should ABSOLUTELY hunt them. But considering where it is, I'm a little suprised +/- 45% voted yes. Better the I thought IMHO.

I will not be surprised if the next time the hunt is held a world record bear is shot. During the first hunt I witness a bear harvested during a deer drive. State biologists estimated a 605lb live weight. 12 gauge BRI slugs were less than affected with five confirmed hits. Four in the vitals.

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
57% no when I just voted?? I don't get that...

Well, you better get used to it. I'm surprised it was only 57% no. Look at some of the screwy laws in nearby Mass - non-residents can't buy ammo, the only traps allowed are cage/box traps. Unfortunately, it's probably going to take a few people seriously injured or killed by NJ black bears to get the general public to wake up and support sound wildlife management.

Here is the vote count at the time of my post:
Yes 47% (3,902 votes)
No 53% (4,333 votes)

I think you are correct, someone will have to be badly hurt before eyes are opened if they ever are.

Way to go, folks. It's up to 50%/50%.

I have seen pictures of a sedated sow that weighed in at 721lbs!!!!! There are problems with the population, but folks have to remember that there was a bear hunt 5 years ago, so the anti's do not rule all the time.

I personally wrote to a woman who heads a group called "Friends of the Bears" this lady was so out of touch with reality it actually scared me.

I believe they will allow a hunt, and it should be held every couple of years to keep the population down. Near by New York State allows bear hunting as a regular event and you dont see the problems that N.J. has.....

I just voted and it is now 51% YES!!!

BTW we hunt bear EVERY year in Maine for a season that lasts MONTHS over bait, with dogs and trapping are all allowed. The population has also increased every year for the last 12 years.

From reading the locations of most posters I am assuming that they may not be familiar with the make up of NJ. This is perhaps the mostly heavily populated state per square mile in the US - and the most industialized. It has a small corner of the state that does have a truly wild area. (getting towards the Delaware Water Gap) The bears push into suburban areas looking for food because they are being pushed out of their natural habitat. I am not sure what I want here but it bothers me when I see TV films and excited comments by TV anchors about yearling bears being regarded as if Godzilla had invaded the neighborhood. Will hunting in real woods wipe out the blacks in NJ? I don't know but the complaints of wealthy landowners do not make me want to risk wiping out blacks in a neighboring state. I would have voted NO (and I was a lifelong hunter. It's a matter of balancing. I repeat, NJ is not Maine -or even Ohio. I kinda want to say to NJ hunters that if you want to hunt black bear -go to Maine and do it as a sporting hunt!)

Actually, NJ was party of my sales region for 6 years. I agree that parts are heavily populated, but parts are also still very rural. Frankly, bowhunting is the suburbs would be a good way to start to stem the population. I know of I had a mature blackie tearing up my trash cans on a regular basis, it would have to go and I don't mean by calling the 'dogcatcher'.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gerrypeters375:
Will hunting in real woods wipe out the blacks in NJ? [\QUOTE]

This is all but impossible. NJDEP has a NJ Black Bear Management Policy designed to ensure population management. Their current draft states "Although the activity of regulated hunting of black bears results in the death of individual bears, specific safeguards, including an in-season closure mechanism and bag limit, will assure that bear harvests are below the population’s sustained-yield capabilities. Council agrees with the finding that no significant negative effects, individually or cumulatively, on bears as a species are expected to result from hunting (CA FED 2000)."

The solution is an annual bear hunt, not every few years. Too bad the decisions are being made by unsound politics instead of sound science.

Gerrypeters375, The a one week hunt is not going to wipe out the bear population. Fish and Game stopped the hunt in the seventy's. When the population hit huntable numbers the press and the bear nuts came out of the wood work stopping the hunt. Please to not believe the hype.

J-zola

Please reread my post. I am not so naive as to believe that a one week hunt would "wipe out" the bears. I am only suggesting that NJ is just not the right kind of country for black bear hunters. Do you have any idea as to the liberal population living in NJ? -And who will launch hysterical screams as soon as they hear the first roar of a 12 ga? (or the crack of a rifle if that's allowed?)

quote:

Originally posted by Gerrypeters375:
J-zola

Please reread my post. I am not so naive as to believe that a one week hunt would "wipe out" the bears. I am only suggesting that NJ is just not the right kind of country for black bear hunters. Do you have any idea as to the liberal population living in NJ? -And who will launch hysterical screams as soon as they hear the first roar of a 12 ga? (or the crack of a rifle if that's allowed?)

NJ has permitted the use of muzzleloaders and shotguns using SLUGS or buckshot for deer for eons. Most of the deer inhabit the same woods as the bear do.

See page 29 of the NJ Regulations



And yes, I'm familiar with the "make up" of NJ; I was born and raised there and began hunting deer there more than 50 years ago.

Gerrypeters375, unfortunately I know all to well about the liberal nuts that live here. The last two hunts went off without a real problem. During those two hunts you were only aloud to use slugs or a muzzleloader. No bait or dogs either just like New York or Pennsylvania. There is plenty of land to support the hunt. Most of New Jersey does not look like Newark or Paterson.

The poll is down to 45% pro hunting...it's going to be a real battle to get a hunting season in NJ. This is one of the most liberal states and as folks have pointed out it's going to take a tragic event for people to change their mind. This comes after bear encounters in Newark of all places. We hunt public land just across the border of NJ in NY and we have see a huge increase in bear sightings during the deer/bear season.

45% yes. We need everyone to vote YES. Nothing to sign or join, just hit the Yes button. If you can read this post, you can vote. Our brothren in NJ need us all!
LDK

I do have to admit that the posts from NJ hunters have impressed me and I want to say (as a change from what I first said) that if there is real bear hunting in NJ then I want NJ sport hunters to be doing it. (I do stand by my comment that liberal rich landowners are always spooked by the roar of a 12 ga. or the crack of a rifle -and,sooner or later,that is what will get them to oppose hunting - and is a rifle allowed at all? Guys, I still say- you are like Custer standing in a dwindling group as the Indians come closer and closer. The liberals don't allow mountain lion hunting in California -do you think they will allow black bear hunting in NJ to go on for much longer? Take a look at blackie hunting in New Brunswick or Ontario or Maine. (No, I'm not a shill for any of them,I swear it!)

does anyone know how quickly their site updates? i just voted four times over the course of 1 minute in favor of a hunt and no update.

Thanks Gerrypeters375 for your support. We can use centerfire rifles for woodchucks only on private property. 22 rimfire with shorts only for coon hunting or trapping. For the 2008/2009 seasons we harvested 53,260 deer with 21,017 bow harvested. Thats a fair amount of shotgun/muzzleloader blasts for the liberals to listen to. I quess the loss to there expensive shrubs makes the noise easier to listen to. The bears have been a problem in the north part of the state. If you look around the Ringwood area it is all hardwoods and laurel. A nice area to hunt with few people do to the hills and rocks. I hope to add another hunter to the state this weekend after my daughter takes the hunter safety class on saturday.

J_Zola:

First, let me congratulate you on having raised a dsughter who wants to hunt. Take a bow,Sir! And I mean it.

I'm appalled that N.J. requires the use of a 22 short on coons. I can only assume that your laws mean that all coons are to be shot in a trap (in my youth, a 22 short was a cartridge used at carnivals) -because in my own state of NY when I was young (back when dinosaurs roamed)I often saw coons at night that could have hit 35 lbs -and were not standing still for a 22 LR HV either. (Coons were strictly nocturnal back then and sometimes we caught up with the coon before he could get up the tree -and, to protect the hounds -somebody had to fire (usually with a 22 pistol) I really admire you guys whose posts I have been reading as NJ bear hunters because you are hunting despite awful odds - but then, I guess you are true sportsmen hunters - you want to give the animal all of the odds in his favor. (P.S. I saw large areas towards the Delaware Water Gap driving there where a rifle would have been perfectly "safe" (and you know what I'm talking about) - but then, I guess the rules are made in NJ (as in NY) by people who never have carried a firearm in the field.

I live in NJ, good luck with that.

No suprise that the poll is negative, very few hunters left. There has been a noticable decline in the amount of shooting on opening day of deer season. No lack of deer or bears. just fewer hunters. To bad really as we have a very long deer season and unlimited does in my zone. The urban types are moving into farm land and access is getting tougher.

Bill C:

But I bet those "urban types " will be the first to complain when the deer start munching on the foundation plantings,right?

Little New Jersey bear.
http://www.newjerseyhunter.com/article79452.htm

quote:

Unfortunately, it's probably going to take a few people seriously injured or killed by NJ black bears to get the general public to wake up and support sound wildlife management.

The anti's don't care!

About 1200 more no`s than yes.Unreal!!!

Olbiker:

You live in a state that still retains a lot of natural countryside. Believe me, NJ has very little left -and I am impressed that NJ hunters have been able to hang on to even what they have. When I mentioned "rich landowners" in an earlier post as opposing hunting I said so because I know these types. People who made money in the cities they were raised in and worked in -and who buy country property because it looks pretty on the specially made up Christmas cards and to walk around on in their Abercrombie & Fitch clothes. Wisconsin is a different world! Believe it or not, within my lifetime, NJ was superb hunting country (western NJ)and now, today, I watch the spectacle of yearling bears on news TV being closed in on in suburban neighborhoods as if they were Godzilla on the loose. And you are surprised at the vote? This old New Yorker is not surprised at all.

I have no doubt NJ is a solid lib dem state and therefore hunting and I wouldn't be surprised if fishing too were really unpopular. But, as far as that poll is concerned, how accurate can it be? They obviously are allowing out of staters to participate and I suspect they are allowing multiple votes per person. Doesn't that open it to outside organizations on both sides?

53% now. Cool! They just tranquilized a Boar that had hibernated under someone's front porch last week up here in the northern part of the state in the Appalachians. It was 621 lbs coming out of hibernation, so probably well over 700 by the Fall.