Shortened season, weather combine to produce low 2022 NJ bear hunt numbers

In the past decade of bear hunts in northwestern New Jersey, the 2022 hunt tallied the fewest black bears killed, including seasons which were shorter.

Reasons being offered for why the total of 114 bears killed this year is half the 225 killed in 2018 depend on which side of the bear hunt issue one is viewing the argument. The low numbers are waved around as "proof" there is no need for a hunt by the anti-hunt crowd with stormy and cold weather the reason bears were not out and about given by hunters.

Other than efforts in 2003 and 2005, annual hunts returned to northwestern part of the state in 2011 and, with the exception of 2021, have been held every year since. Gov. Phil Murphy closed state-owned lands to bear hunting in 2019 and 2020. Last year, the then-current black bear management policy expired and a hunt could not legally be held.

Reasons for low harvest rate

"The Bear Hunt was a bust." trumpeted Jeff Tittel, former director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "The low number of  7% (harvest rate) shows that the hunt was unneeded and unnecessary. If the number of bears and the number of nuisance bears were as high as Fish and Wildlife said, then the number of bears killed would have been larger."

"Mountain Mike" Bush, who has taken a bear in each of the past decade's hunts, blamed wet and chilly weather this year for his lack of success. "They (bears) all denned up early," he reasoned. "If it's raining, they want to stay inside."

Bush is a retired sports equipment store owner and Bear Management chair for the United Bow Hunters of New Jersey. He said the lack of bear activity could be seen through a network of trail cameras in areas of the forest inhabited by wildlife, including bear and deer.

"We were seeing 20 bears or more showing up (on camera) in mid-November. Every day there have been fewer," he said. Weather has been not only rainy and snowy, but temperatures overnight have dropped below freezing.

Bush lives adjacent to the Hamburg Mountain Wildlife Management Area in eastern Sussex County and said he was out in the woods just about every day of the six-day shotgun deer season.

The annual shotgun bear season is scheduled for the same time as the shotgun deer season. However this year, anti-hunters went to court to stop the bear season. While they lost in Appellate Court, the decision did not come until late on what would have been the second day of the bear season.

Recent numbers: NJ bear incident reports triple this year

Groups debate whether hunt was necessary

On the first full day of the bear hunt, Assistant Commissioner Dave Golden, who heads the Division of Fish and Wildlife, said biologists did not expect to see big numbers this year, both because of the weather, and the bear season not beginning until mid-week.

It wasn't until November that the hunt was put on the calendar and not as many hunters as usual were in the woods. For both seasons, the state is divided into zones with permits available for specific zones. Bear hunters were limited to two permits, but could take only one bear.

When the harvest goal of 20% of tagged bears was not reached in the Wednesday-Saturday hunt, the state extended the hunt to Wednesday-Saturday the following week.

Murphy, who had opposed the bear hunt but was unable to stop it until 2021, changed his mind in late October after the latest state reports of bear encounters shows sharp increases in numbers. He lifted his objections and allowed the Fish and Game Council to set the bear season under "emergency conditions."

It was a lack of "emergency conditions" which the animal rights groups used in their arguments to the Appellate Court and which Tittel referred in his Monday statement.

"This proves there was no emergency," he said, referring to the low number of bears killed. "We said from the beginning they used fuzzy math to justify the hunt and the results show that."

Tittel added, "Unfortunately, 114 Bears were killed for no reason except the governor's political agenda."

History of bear hunting in NJ

New Jersey's regulated bear hunts returned in 2003 after a 30-year ban imposed when the state's bear population dropped into double-digits. The latest population estimate is about 3,500 bears in the northwestern corner of the state.

However, Golden said that the increase of bear complaints in municipalities in central New Jersey shows there is a growing bear population there and people need to educate themselves on bear behavior. That education is part of the state's efforts at non-lethal ways to lessen human-bear encounters.

After bear hunts in 2003 and 2005, it wasn't until 2010 that Gov. Chris Christie allowed an annual bear hunt. The first few hunts were limited to the six-day December hunt with 469 bears taken in 2011; 287 in 2012 and 251 in 2013.

There were 272 bears killed in 2014 and 472 taken in 2015.

A new black bear management policy took effect in 2016 and called for a six-day archery season in early October, a time when bears are active and the weather is warmer. The new policy also allowed for extension of the December hunt into the following week if harvest goals were not reached.

The combination of the new archery season, when 562 bears were harvested, and the December shotgun season resulted in a total harvest of 636 that year. It was the only year until this fall that the season had not been extended. That year just 74 bears were killed in December, which is less than the 114 taken in eight days of hunting this year.

Since the archery season was added, hunters have taken more bear in October than in December. This year's 114 bears taken in December (there was no archery season in October) is the second-most (165 in 2017) since archery began.

Bush said expanding the archery bear season to coincide with archery deer seasons would go a long way to controlling the black bear population.

A new plan for bear management?

According to biologists, a 20% harvest rate — reached only once since archery began — still allows for growth of a wild population. At 30%, reached over several years, a game animal population is in danger of being eliminated. The management policy requires the bear hunt to be called off if that 30% number is reached.

Biologists, using accepted population estimate methods, will tag a certain number of bears each year. The number of those specially-tagged bears brought in by hunters is how the harvest rate is determined.

In 2021, the current black bear management policy expired and without an approved policy in place, the Fish and Game Council could not set a bear season. While the council had approved a new policy, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette declined to sign it.

As part of setting an "emergency hunt" this year, a new seven-year management plan has also been put before the council.

That body, composed of governor-appointed members representing sportsmen, agricultural interests and the public, has scheduled a public hearing for 1-8 p.m., Jan. 18, at the State Museum Auditorium in Trenton. Written comments on the proposal will be accepted until Feb. 3.

After that point, the council can take a vote and, if approved, the updated document goes to the DEP commissioner, then to the governor, for signature.

The full proposed policy can be viewed here, and comments made online here.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Weather, population blamed for lack of bears killed in NJ hunt