Murphy’s Bear Hunt Kills More Bears So Far This Year

Yesterday was the first day of the 2018 New Jersey bear hunt and already 36 bears have been killed. Despite the ban on hunting bears on state lands, this is even more bears than were killed on the first day of last year’s hunt. Yesterday, the New Jersey Sierra Club joined other groups to protest the hunt in Newton. The New Jersey Sierra Club believes that without an actual bear management plan that deals with protection of habitats, garbage, and educating people in bear country, the hunt is meaningless.

“The numbers show more bears were killed on the hunt’s first day this year than last year. This proves our point that we’ve only privatized the bear hunt with the state-land ban. We’ve said all along that the same number of bears will get killed. Therefore, Murphy’s policy has been a failure. When running for Governor, Murphy promised to put a moratorium on the bear hunt until a thorough bear management plan could be put in place. He broke his promise and now just as many bears are being killed on his watch,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “This state-land ban is nothing but a publicity stunt and is doing nothing to reduce the number of bears being killed. Will Murphy stop the hunt in December or next year or in four years? If we wait too long, there might be no more bears left. This is now Murphy’s hunt and these bears are being killed under his watch because he broke his commitment and promises.”

Murphy’s Executive Order bans bear hunting on all state lands, about 700,000 acres. However, this leaves just as much land in county parklands, private lands, water company lands, non-profit lands, and municipal lands where bears can still be hunted on. While running for Governor, Murphy promised to put a moratorium on the bear hunt that was increased under Governor Christie. Three hunting groups, The New Jersey Outdoor Alliance (NJOA), Safari Club International and Sportsmen’s Alliance, have announced their intent to sue the Administration.

“Three other Governors, Whitman, McGreevey, and Corzine, were all able to stop the Fish and Game Council from going forward with a bear hunt but Murphy says his hands are tied. There’s a 2005 court case that supported the Governor’s decision. The Murphy Administration may have been afraid of being sued and that’s why they decided to go forward with only a ban on state lands. Now we see that they’re being sued by hunting groups anyway. Why not follow through with the original promise of a full ban on hunting in New Jersey?” said Jeff Tittel. “Current hunt parameters are unsustainable, unethical, and not backed by sound science. We need to stop this hunt and focus on a real bear management plan for New Jersey!”

New Jersey used to spend more than $2 million a year on bear management education, that money has been reduced by 90%. Ten years ago, New Jersey had bear wardens whose jobs were to manage bears and educate the public. That program has been eliminated. Now only Conservation Officers do that work and there are 40% less of them then there was ten years ago. They not only have to deal with bears, but other species, poachers, and everything else.

“In order to successfully address bear management, we must deal with garbage, educate the public about living bear country, and protect their habitat. There needs to be warning signs in bear country with post at all trail heads with Do’s and Don’ts in bear country. We also need to teach people how to bear-proof their property, including the importance of having no garbage at night and bear proof containers. These will do a lot more in managing the bear population than having an unnecessary hunt. Protecting our habitat is another important step towards managing our bear population,” said Jeff Tittel. “Each year, New Jersey loses thousands of acres of land in bear country. The more we build houses in the middle of the woods where bears live, the more conflict we will see between bears and humans.”

New Jersey needs to transition from hunting to a real a real management plan, one that includes strong education and uses warning signs in the region, education materials at trail heads, enforcing not feeding bears, and garbage management. There needs to be warning signs in bear country with post at all trail heads with Do’s and Don’ts in bear country. We also need to teach people how to bear-proof their property, including the importance of having no garbage at night and bear proof containers. These will do a lot more in managing the bear population than having an unnecessary hunt.

“Unless we break away from the Christie Administration’s political science-based bear management, we won’t be adequately protecting the bear population or the ecosystems of New Jersey. The bear hunt was initiated initially to get rid of aggressive and nuisance bears and the numbers show that they have dropped by 86%. There’s no reason to be killing the same number of bears this year,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We need the Murphy Administration to put the science back into bear management. We need to use non-lethal techniques and education, as well as habitat preservation, to reduce human-bear interactions. A hunt based on inadequate tagging system and incorrect science could end up destroying our bear population altogether.”