DEP chief stands ground on bear hunt
09-15-2004, 08:03 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Warren County NJ USA
Posts: 3,899
DEP chief stands ground on bear hunt
The issue of who has the final say over a bear hunt this fall has state officials butting heads and hunting groups threatening cout action.
State Environmental Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell on Tuesday repeated that he won't issue permits for hunters to participate in the state's second bear hunt, scheduled for December. The declaration came in response to request from the state Fish and Game Council, an appointed state panel that regulates hunting seasons in New Jersey; it favors another bear hunt.
Campbell says it's time to try other means of controlling the state's growing black bear population. Even though the Fish and Game Council disagrees with him, the commissioner says he's got the power to stop the hunt by refusing to issue permits.
"I intend to honor the commitment that I've made" in opposing a second bear hunt, Campbell said of his refusal to allow applications for bear-hunting permits to be posted on the state Division of Fish and Wildlife Wed site. Campbell said he was mindful that the Fish and Game Council would likely sue him.
The Fish and Game Council fired back on Tuesday at its monthly meeting at the Assunpink Wildlife Management Center near Trenton. Hunters have been busy downloading copied applications for bear permits from various private Web sites, and the council voted to process the applications-confident that it will eventually prove in court that it has sole authority to choose whicj species get hunted in the state.
The chairman of the Fish and Game Council, W. Scott Ellis, could not be reached afterward for comment. But a national hunting organization jumped into the fray and said it intends to take the matter to court.
"I promise you that we will sur NEW JERSEY," said Rob Sexton, a spokesman for the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, an Ohio-based organization that supports hunters' rights nationally.
On Friday, Ellis had sent a letter to Campbell, asking that he make permit applications officially available on the state Division of Fish and Wildlife web site by Sept. 30 so officaials could process the necessary paperwork to let the bear hunt go foward. Ellis wrote that dealys in posting the permit application were causing "much anxiety" and "creating unneeded public controversy" about the bear hunt.
Last year, Campbell reluctantly supported New Jersey's first black bear hunt since 1970, citing the physical threat posed by increasing black bear incursions into residental neighborhoods. But he also said at the time that he wanted state wildlife staff to look into bear-management alternatives for the future.
That position has infuriated hunters and left bear advoactes optimistic for the first time in years, New Jersey may be on the verge of revamping its wildlife management policy.
"I think Fish and Game has been operating without any oversight for a long time," said Lynda Smith, director of the Bear Education and Resource group of West Milford, which is opposed to the hunt. "It's about time someone questioned their authority."
Campbell said that the state's wildlife biologists believe they over estimated the black bear population last year, when they put the number as high as 3,200. Data culled from the first hunt suggests that the population might have been less than half of that-about 1,400 bears. Campbell
said there isn't an urgent need to reduce the bear population.
"The population is not as high as was assumed last year when the hunt was authorized," Campbell said. "Therefore I remain committed to using other tools."
The size of New Jersey's black bear population has long been a bone contention.
Animal-rights activists were horrified when 328 bears were taken in the hunt last December-two-thirds of which were female.
They vowed to make the killing an election-year issue for Governor McGreevy in 2005-prompting Campbell to ask the Fish and Game Council in March not to include a bear hunt in the game codes for 2004.
Hunters maintain that without an annual hunt, at least for the next several years, the state will never make a serious dent in the bear population. Even with the population estimates downgraded to around 1,500 bears statewide, that's still far too many to avoid run-ins with humans in the never-ending search for food.
"Even with low estimate, there are still three times as many bears in New Jersey as the carrying capacity of the state will allow, " said Joe Couch, a spokesman for former rock star Ted Nugent's pro-hunting United Sportsmen of America.
State Environmental Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell on Tuesday repeated that he won't issue permits for hunters to participate in the state's second bear hunt, scheduled for December. The declaration came in response to request from the state Fish and Game Council, an appointed state panel that regulates hunting seasons in New Jersey; it favors another bear hunt.
Campbell says it's time to try other means of controlling the state's growing black bear population. Even though the Fish and Game Council disagrees with him, the commissioner says he's got the power to stop the hunt by refusing to issue permits.
"I intend to honor the commitment that I've made" in opposing a second bear hunt, Campbell said of his refusal to allow applications for bear-hunting permits to be posted on the state Division of Fish and Wildlife Wed site. Campbell said he was mindful that the Fish and Game Council would likely sue him.
The Fish and Game Council fired back on Tuesday at its monthly meeting at the Assunpink Wildlife Management Center near Trenton. Hunters have been busy downloading copied applications for bear permits from various private Web sites, and the council voted to process the applications-confident that it will eventually prove in court that it has sole authority to choose whicj species get hunted in the state.
The chairman of the Fish and Game Council, W. Scott Ellis, could not be reached afterward for comment. But a national hunting organization jumped into the fray and said it intends to take the matter to court.
"I promise you that we will sur NEW JERSEY," said Rob Sexton, a spokesman for the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, an Ohio-based organization that supports hunters' rights nationally.
On Friday, Ellis had sent a letter to Campbell, asking that he make permit applications officially available on the state Division of Fish and Wildlife web site by Sept. 30 so officaials could process the necessary paperwork to let the bear hunt go foward. Ellis wrote that dealys in posting the permit application were causing "much anxiety" and "creating unneeded public controversy" about the bear hunt.
Last year, Campbell reluctantly supported New Jersey's first black bear hunt since 1970, citing the physical threat posed by increasing black bear incursions into residental neighborhoods. But he also said at the time that he wanted state wildlife staff to look into bear-management alternatives for the future.
That position has infuriated hunters and left bear advoactes optimistic for the first time in years, New Jersey may be on the verge of revamping its wildlife management policy.
"I think Fish and Game has been operating without any oversight for a long time," said Lynda Smith, director of the Bear Education and Resource group of West Milford, which is opposed to the hunt. "It's about time someone questioned their authority."
Campbell said that the state's wildlife biologists believe they over estimated the black bear population last year, when they put the number as high as 3,200. Data culled from the first hunt suggests that the population might have been less than half of that-about 1,400 bears. Campbell
said there isn't an urgent need to reduce the bear population.
"The population is not as high as was assumed last year when the hunt was authorized," Campbell said. "Therefore I remain committed to using other tools."
The size of New Jersey's black bear population has long been a bone contention.
Animal-rights activists were horrified when 328 bears were taken in the hunt last December-two-thirds of which were female.
They vowed to make the killing an election-year issue for Governor McGreevy in 2005-prompting Campbell to ask the Fish and Game Council in March not to include a bear hunt in the game codes for 2004.
Hunters maintain that without an annual hunt, at least for the next several years, the state will never make a serious dent in the bear population. Even with the population estimates downgraded to around 1,500 bears statewide, that's still far too many to avoid run-ins with humans in the never-ending search for food.
"Even with low estimate, there are still three times as many bears in New Jersey as the carrying capacity of the state will allow, " said Joe Couch, a spokesman for former rock star Ted Nugent's pro-hunting United Sportsmen of America.
09-15-2004, 10:01 AM
#2
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Andover NJ USA
Posts: 226
RE: DEP chief stands ground on bear hunt
Let it be known that my full quote was "Even with Campbell's low estimate, that not a single scientist, biologist or statistician has agreed with, there are still three times as many bears in New Jersey as the carrying capacity of the state will allow"
09-15-2004, 10:39 AM
#4
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Hamilton, NJ
Posts: 100
RE: DEP chief stands ground on bear hunt
"I think Fish and Game has been operating without any oversight for a long time," said Lynda Smith, director of the Bear Education and Resource group of West Milford, which is opposed to the hunt. "It's about time someone questioned their authority."
Lynda Smith needs to be exposed for what she is, what she represents, and what she supports; eco-terrorism & eco-terrorists.
This analysis of the governing statutory provisions has been reinforced by a decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court in Humane Society, supra. Although the issue in that case was concerned with the composition and membership of the Council, the court had occasion to comment on its unique and specialized responsibilities:
"The Fish and Game Council is invested with certain regulatory powers aimed at protecting and developing an adequate supply of fish and game for recreational and commercial purposes. These powers are expressed primarily by the Council's determinations as to when and where in the State hunting and fishing shall take place, and which freshwater fish, game birds, game animals, and fur bearing animals may be taken and in what numbers. The wildlife thus regulated is those animals which are the focus of the sports of hunting and fishing. In addition, the Council supervises a program of wildlife propagation, the expenses of which are supported by fees for hunting and fishing licenses paid for by sportsmen and commercial fishermen"
"The Fish and Game Council is invested with certain regulatory powers aimed at protecting and developing an adequate supply of fish and game for recreational and commercial purposes. These powers are expressed primarily by the Council's determinations as to when and where in the State hunting and fishing shall take place, and which freshwater fish, game birds, game animals, and fur bearing animals may be taken and in what numbers. The wildlife thus regulated is those animals which are the focus of the sports of hunting and fishing. In addition, the Council supervises a program of wildlife propagation, the expenses of which are supported by fees for hunting and fishing licenses paid for by sportsmen and commercial fishermen"
09-15-2004, 01:02 PM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Warren County NJ USA
Posts: 3,899
RE: DEP chief stands ground on bear hunt
Campbell says that the bear population is lower then what it was thought last year. I'm no expert in wildlife population counting, but in my area where I hunt I got pictures of 4 different bears within 30yds of my treestand taken with my cam-trekker from mid August thru mid September 2004. Matter of fact I got more pics of bears then I do of deer. 4 bears in one general area tells me that the population taken before the hunt last year is right on the money.
