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New Jersey's Bear Policy: Co-Exist or Kill?

May 15, 2002

New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey faces a lot of difficult choices as he shepherds the fiscal year 2003 budget through the legislature. The state is rolling in red ink, with deficit estimates soaring as high as $6 billion. As a result, the governor has been looking for cuts anywhere and everywhere, including a plan to kill the state's groundbreaking Black Bear Management Response Program.

The $1.1 million program, the first of its kind in the country, serves as a model for other states in handling bear/human conflicts. It provides residents with some basic facts on how to behave in bear country: Disposing of trash, removing bird feeders when bears are active, and taking away other food sources (such as uneaten dog and cat food and unwashed barbecue grills) are critical to reducing human/bear conflicts.

As part of the program, dozens of northern New Jersey police officers discourage bears from approaching humans and their homes, cars, and trash dumpsters. This approach has, to date, been effective, speedy and relatively inexpensive. Citizens concerned about a bear can contact local law enforcement personnel and get a response within a few minutes—rather than the few hours or days it may take a state conservation officer to respond.

Governor McGreevey justifies cutting the program by calling it "unproven." But the program is too new to have been either proven or unproven. Changes in human behavior (unlike bear behavior) do not occur overnight.

A Bear Hunt?

The likely alternative to this program is a hunting season on black bears, an option the public has bitterly fought for years. In the most recent battle in 2000, the New Jersey Fish and Game Council voted down a hunt under pressure from New Jersey citizens and then-Governor Christine Todd Whitman. Since the state black bear population rebounded from a low of 100 in the 1970s to an estimated 1,000 today, the New Jersey hunting community (which dominates the Fish and Game Council) has been anxious to begin killing bears in recreational hunts. To drum up support for a hunt, the Fish and Game Council has warned the public that bears must be killed to protect its safety. The council doesn't tell the public that there has never been a reported incident of a black bear attacking a human in New Jersey.

What You Can Do

First, contact Governor McGreevey, then contact your Senator and Assemblymen and/or Assemblywomen. Ask them not to eliminate outright the Black Bear Management Response Program from the budget. Tell them that the most important tools of the program—the education of the public and law enforcement—can be done at minimal costs, lower than the current $1.1 million pricetag, and that they should continue to fund them. Tell them that New Jersey citizens want to co-exist with native black bears, not hunt them.

Contact Information:

The Honorable James E. McGreevey
P.O. Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
609-292-6000
E-mail: www.state.nj.us/governor/govmail.html.

To locate your Senator and Assemblymen and/or Assemblywomen, click on the "Find Your Elected Officials" link in the Related Information field.

For more information, contact The HSUS's Mid-Atlantic Regional Office at 973-927-5611.

Black Bears

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