Looks like NJ Commissioner Bradley Campbell was persuaded by his counterpart in NY. Denise must have knocked some sense in his thick head. We were much better off in NJ when we only had 50 bears. The problem is that bears do not know state line barriers and entered NY State which caused an outcry from many NY residents who lived near NJ. It took a women with some common sense who wasn't afraid of the animal rights pagans.
NY wildlife chief urges Garden State to hold bear hunt
TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey' neighbor to the north is urging it to hold a bear hunt this winter to help control the growing number of black bears that range between the Empire and Garden states.
Denise Sheehan, New York's environmental conservation commissioner, called for a hunt in a letter to New Jersey Environmental Commissioner Bradley Campbell.
"Managed, successful hunting seasons in both New York and New Jersey, coupled with educational programs and nuisance abatement protocols, are the keys to the sound management of this magnificent resource," Sheehan wrote in the July 14 letter.
The letter comes a month after Campbell said he would consider a hunt for this December and perhaps annually.
"Wildlife management is a community effort that crosses state lines," Campbell's spokeswoman, Elaine Makatura, said Wednesday.
Last year, Campbell blocked a hunt, resulting in a court clash with the independent state panel that sets the state's hunting seasons.
Under a subsequent state Supreme Court decision, Campbell and the game panel were told to develop a management plan that outlined an acceptable size for the bear population and the methods to control it.
Campbell is now reviewing a draft policy that proposes a hunt this year. If he approves it, the game panel will be relatively free to set annual bear hunts.
New York and Pennsylvania have held regulated, annual bear hunts for some time. New Jersey's last hunt was in December 2003, the first since 1970, when annual bear seasons were stopped because the animals had become scarce.
Hunters in New Jersey killed 328 bears in 2003.