Voices Raised on New Jersey Black Bears

Change of Governor, Change of Policy: Hunters, Huggers Square Off

Whatever New Jerseyans — one of the states most consistently voting Democratic in national elections — were voting for when they elected Republican Chris Christie Governor last year, they seem to be getting another about face on one of their most contentious issues: whether or not to hunt black bears. The Fish and Game Council on March 9 presented its draft for a new "Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy" to Bob Martin, the Acting Commissioner of Environmental Protection appointed by the new Governor. As hoped by some and feared by others, it contains strong recommendations for restoring the ten-day hunting season that had been shelved at the insistence of the last Governor, Democrat Jon Corzine.

There are two main things that make the bear issue especially difficult in New Jersey:
- It is one of the most densely populated states in the nation, yet the nickname "Garden State" is no joke. From farmlands and magnificent wetlands to the pinelands "down the shore" and the forested and lake-dotted highlands of the northwestern corner (where the "High Point" monument crowns a spot on the Kittatinny Ridge that reaches just a bit more than a thousand feet above sea level), Jersey's many human residents are wedged in among nature's finest. In the case of black bears, neighborliness is sometimes hard to work out, from either side.
- Discussion of the issue is carried on almost exclusively at the extremes. Cries of "nuisance" and "danger" are met with "abused" and "persecuted." And then the yelling gets personal, whether directed at politicians of one stripe and then the other, or at the verbal opponents themselves. There is very little reasoned argument, and very little opportunity to learn how bears and humans can actually find that neighborly coexistence.