UnBearable – Gov. Murphy will Break Commitment to Stop NJ Black Bear Hunt

Governor Murphy is expected to rescind an Executive Order he signed in 2018 that banned bear hunting on state lands, about 700,000 acres. His administration made an announcement today that the New Jersey Fish and Game Council will discuss the approval of the State’s Comprehensive Bear Management Policy (CBBMP) and consider amendments to the Game Code at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday, November 15.

There will be an opportunity for public comment on the CBBMP and amendments to the Game Code during the Fish and Game Council meeting on Tuesday, only 5 days from today. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. at the New Jersey State Museum, 205 West State Street with no virtual opportunity to comment.

The New Jersey Sierra Club does not agree with Governor’s Murphy’s decision to reverse his 2018 EO which banned hunting on public lands and continues to advocate for a bear management plan that includes education, science, and public outreach before turning to hunting bears. The Chapter also believes the administration did not give the public enough notice for comment and failed to provide a virtual option to participate.

Anjuli Ramos-Busot, New Jersey Director of the Sierra Club, released the following statement:

“Governor Murphy is failing to keep his commitment on stopping the bear hunt. The justification for reversing the 2018 EO, which prevented the bear hunt on state lands, is not clear. In order to reduce nuisance cases with bears, we need a real management plan that will deal with educating the public on how to live with bears and bear-proofing their property. Seeing bears in the woods does not provide justification for hunting them.

“The NJDEP will be launching a broader Wildlife Management and Public Safety Initiative in addition to the black bear hunt – a pilot management plan advancing non-lethal strategies including trash management. We believe this pilot plan should be conducted before resorting to the bear hunt on state lands. Additionally, when we look at Fish and Wildlife reports, an increase in sightings and nuisance is observed from 2019 to 2020, this can be attributed to the pandemic. Most of us were working from home and with the ability to be more outdoors, therefore an increase in sighthings was expected. However from  2020 to 202, there is almost a 50% decrease in both sightings and nuisance cases. The NJ Chapter recognizes that there has been an increase in sightings and nuisance cases in general this year, however we strongly urge Governor Murphy to keep his commitment and resort to the broad non-lethal pilot management plan before allowing the hunt of bears.

“Better management of our garbage, efficient signage indicating Do’s and Don’ts, educational materials at trail heads, enforcement of no bear feeding and bear-proofing properties in areas with a high population (bear country) are necessary practices that will go far beyond hunting more bears. We want to see comprehensive action of these tactics before we kill more bears.”