Name: New Jersey hunters press in court to reopen state lands to bear hunt
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New Jersey hunters press in court to reopen state lands to bear hunt

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NorthJersey.comView CommentsGov. Phil Murphy's 2018 decision to close state lands to bear hunting appears to have satisfied almost no one, with hunters complaining in court this week that they've been deprived of their rights, and animal lovers still feeling betrayed by what they see as the governor's failure to fully deliver on a campaign promise to stop the hunt.&nbsp;Hunters went to court this week trying to convince Administrative Law Judge Susan Scarola that the governor's order directing Environmental Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe to&nbsp;"take&nbsp;all necessary and appropriate actions to protect black bears ...&nbsp;including closing state lands" was "arbitrary and capricious" and violates the state's&nbsp;Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy, which calls for hunts in October and December to reduce the population.&nbsp;The challenge, which has been brought by the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance, Safari Club International and the Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation, seeks to reopen state lands and comes just three weeks before the beginning of the Oct. 12 bow hunt, which will be followed by firearms season for bears on Dec. 7.Opponents of the hunt want a full stop, not just a ban on state lands, and are girding for battle as another bear season looms.&nbsp;"The governor made a commitment to stop the bear hunt, but he has not done so," Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said in a statement released Tuesday. "He has the authority to do it, as other governors have. Enough is enough."&nbsp;“New Jersey is poised to allow trophy hunters to kill the state’s beloved black bears using barbaric methods like baiting the animals with piles of rotting sugary food," said Kitty Block, president of the Humane Society of the United States. "The plan would also allow hunters to chase bears off state lands, where bear hunting is not allowed, and onto private lands, just so they can be killed. Worse, it would allow the killing of baby bear cubs — a cruelty now allowed in only one other state, Alaska."Hunters argue that the bear population has soared during the two years of restricted hunts under Murphy. The estimated population is now 2,208 bears, up 44% since 2018, and the state has already received more bear complaints in 2020 than in all of 2019.&nbsp;Story continues below the galleryMurphy's decision to close state lands for the hunt is considered a factor in the rising numbers. How big a factor is one of the issues Scarola will decide, along with the question of whether closing state lands violates the management policy meant to reduce the population and the number of bear complaints.To bolster their case, the hunters presented testimony from wildlife biologist John G. McDonald on Tuesday. McDonald, a professor at Westfield State University in Massachusetts, is considered an expert in bear population studies, and he testified that banning hunters from state lands was the primary reason harvests have fallen the past two years and the population has increased by more than 600 bears.&nbsp;McDonald noted that in the years before the closure, about 40% of the bears killed were taken on state lands. He noted that the harvests in 2016 (636 bears killed) and 2017 (409), were much higher than in 2018 (225) and 2019 (315).&nbsp;"In 2018, with the closure of state lands, we saw a pretty significant decrease in the bear harvest," McDonald said. When fewer bears are killed, the population increases, he said."We had less females who normally would have been taken by hunters," he said. "In 2019, there were more females with cubs on the landscape," and this influx of yearlings is likely to cause problems for homeowners, he said.&nbsp;"These bears, which are relatively naïve, are trying to find food," McDonald said. "They're crossing roads, getting into people's backyards."&nbsp;Earlier this week:Live updates on NJ budget:McDonald explained another key factor: the harvest rate, which has also fallen sharply. The harvest rate is the number of tagged bears killed during both hunts, and in 2016 that figure was 25.9%. The harvest rate was 15.3% in 2019, according to state figures.&nbsp;McDonald testified that anytime the harvest rate is below 20%, the population is likely to increase. But the ban on state lands makes getting an accurate population estimate more difficult because it skews the data, he said.&nbsp;Another impediment to getting an accurate count is that bears are mobile and move on and off state land. They're also sensitive to hunters, McDonald said.&nbsp;"Bears have really good memories as to where they find food and where they feel threatened," he said. Bears that are exposed to hunting would tend to move onto state land, he said.&nbsp;Attorneys for the state are expected to cross-examine McDonald on Wednesday. So far, the state has called only one witness: Tony McBride, the Division of Fish and Wildlife biologist who drafted the state Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy.&nbsp;Although the hunters have tried to persuade the judge that the ban has denied them the right to hunt, the state has pointed out that there's plenty of good habitat on federal, municipal and private land in bear country — much of it deep woods that run contiguous with state land.&nbsp;Richard Cowen covers Superior Court in Passaic County for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from criminal trials to local lawsuits and insightful analysis,&nbsp;.Email:&nbsp;Twitter:&nbsp;&nbsp;View Comments

NorthJersey.comView CommentsGov. Phil Murphy's 2018 decision to close state lands to bear hunting appears to have satisfied almost no one, with hunters complaining in court this week that they've been deprived of their rights, and animal lovers still feeling betrayed by what they see as the governor's failure to fully deliver on a campaign promise to stop the hunt.&nbsp;Hunters went to court this week trying to convince Administrative Law Judge Susan Scarola that the governor's order directing Environmental Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe to&nbsp;"take&nbsp;all necessary and appropriate...

New Jersey hunters press in court to reopen state lands to bear hunt

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