I have conducted research on Black Bears since 2000 when New Jersey began to experience the first signs of a fast growing bear population. I have provided factual reports, met with DEP representatives for fact gathering prior to the 2003 black bear hunt and corresponded with NJF&G, Governors, Whitman, McGreevey, acting Governor Cody and current Governor Corzine, as well as, former DEP Commissioners’ Bradely Campbell and current Commissioner Lisa Jackson.
A bear enjoys bird seed from the comfort of someone's deck
In addition, I have written OP-EDS for local newspapers and responded to over 100 letters to the editors regarding this issue.
There isn’t much science needed however, when black bear activity has risen to the current levels and where complaints, garage and house break-in’s have reached an all time high. Domestic animals have been killed, people attacked and the right to enjoy the privacy of our own backyards, public parks and state lands infringed upon by the overpopulated black bear.
Making matters worse is the overpopulation now flowing into every county in N.J. in towns like Upper Saddle River, Paramus, South Brunswick, Trenton, Paterson to name a few.
The anti-hunting/animal-rights groups have thrown every excuse possible to the political winds; testing of bear resistant garbage cans, contraception, hunters wanting “trophy-hunts”, Fish and Game needing a black bear hunt to support their salaries, inaccurate count of the current black bear population.
Garbage control which is important, as it was years ago for overpopulated raccoons, will not solve the actual problem, overpopulation, and the remainder are simply excuses set forth as delay tactics.
New Jersey has too many black bears and not enough natural habitant to support the population. Development of woods and forest lands and increases in human population require that the black bear population be maintained to a specific number of bears per square mile as determined by geographical locations.
In addition, in counties like Sussex, Passaic, Morris and Warren and towns like Blairstown, Branchville, Stillwater, Vernon, Wantage, West Milford, Oak Ridge, Bloomingdale, Butler and Kinnelon among them, we need a hunt this year (2008).
We know that in 2003 and 2005 after each year of those hunts the complaints and sightings went down, we need this down trend again and now.
The black bear problem in N.J. is not a hunting issue;
Anti’s site this increased activity as a failure of hunting when in fact the opposite has never been more proven. If these states did not hold hunting seasons, culling approximately 4000 + black bears annually, just imagine the problems that would exist today with thousands of black bears from non-hunting and prorogation exceeding a 100,000 bears more over the last ten years alone, roaming those states and venturing into New Jersey as well.
Stay tuned as more information on this subject will appear each week
- Mike D.
Good Article
Thank you so much for all your research. It is about time the general population understands that bears are HUNGRY wild animals. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for posting this info. While the extremists won’t be swayed by logic or data, the middle of the road folks need to see this stuff. These voters “in the middle” are not as dumb as the animal rights folks make them out to be!
I am a biologist/forester, retired after 30 years with the Alaska DNR. My family owns property in Vernon Township, Sussex County and I spend the winters there now. My observation is that we have a more dense black bear population there on Hamburg Mountain than any natural wild population I have seen here in Alaska.
Hi Pete, ironically my wife and I live in Vernon (moved this year from West Milford) and in fact my wife and her eight brothers and sisters grew up in Vernon. Thank you for the response. I am a hunter but my research has nothing at all to do with hunting as a long time ago I realizied where this was going. I am actually, honored to receive such kind remarks from a person of your stature and I as well hope that “middle-of-the-road-folks” will look past extremists, past politics and hone in on the real problem, overpopulation, the new aggressive posture of the black bear and the solution; hunting as required for wildlife management.
Best Regards
Mike
I could not agree more with this article. I live in Ringwood with my wife and three young children, and I will attest that there is definitely a black bear problem here. We’ve lived here for 13 years and we’ve probably seen more bears this year than in the previous 12 years. At least once a week now we are seeing black bear on our property, today witnessing a mother and three cubs around our children’s playset. If the extremists think this is not an issue, they need to put away their soft hearts and clear the cobwebs out of the logical parts of their brains.
Hi Steve, thank you for taking the time to reply. Your comments are very important as people like you have a handle on the problem. Plese look at my new article today wherein I will mention your information.
Mike D
I have graphic pictures of what these bears do. They beheaded a duck and ripped apart several chickens. blood and guts all over. My daughter and I are horrified and I am afraid to leave the house. You are welcome to use the pictures just ask. I feel very close to being next on the list of food and am afraid to leave the house. It broke through fence and a regular house window on a coop to get into the birds. It ripped apart another door/wire seperating sections of the coop. This HAS to be controlled. I am going to bring the bear hunters cookies next time they hunt!
Thank you Deborah for reading and responding to my blog. It is problems such as you have noted that the general public doesn’t always find out about. If all of those with similiar stories were to come forward the Governor and DEP Commissioner might really understand the dangers.
Instead they are flooded with letters and phone calls from the anti-hunters/animal-rights groups that continue to work on taking the emphasis away from the real problem; “overpopulation of black bears”.
Right now the Governor is the boss of the DEP who is the boss of the F&W, everyone is worried about job protection, it’s 2008, the economy is shot, gas is through the roof (yes it is coming down as we approach fall and winter when driving goes down, but you can bet the heating oil will make up for the difference) so don’t expect much from anyone involved especially the biologists. We need people with input like yours to “flood” the Governors office so he will get the drift.
Try ammonia on garbage and around leave a pail around the chicken coop with a lid and a one inch holee, soak a rag with ammonia, refresh every two days, it is a cheap fix that might help. Good Luck
Mike D
Mike
I cannot express how tired and I dissapointed I am at the self rightous agenda of this administration and their decision to snub their noses at the request of the public.
I understand that is not currently en voque ot be an outdoorsman, aside from Ted Nugent, we have little pop culture representation. However, the threat of black bear to children in Warren county is irrefutable.
I recently moved down from New Hampshire one of the last bastillions of rational American thought, and we conducted a annual, ethical, well managed hunt to maintain healthy balance between the animals and the taxpaying public who wants to work and live in peace.
In the two years I have lived here, I have had six encounters with black bears over 400lbs in my living space and displaying ambivelant behaviour. Anyone who has spent time outdoors knows black bears should not be this big, and they should be sciddish.
These bears are too comfortable and too well fed. The amount of roadkill and berries has created a overly sized sub species that imposes an imminent threat to pets, children, hunter and the good people of New Jersey.
We were up in arms when we thought the bird flu could be spread, however we are ignoring jurrasic sized carnivores that are sleeping under the swingsets of our children.
Enough is enough. Listen and allow ethical proven professionals to control the population with the proven method of hunting.
This is our property, we pay for it and have the right live on it free from the hazards of uncontrolled wildlife.
Whats next? No spraying for ticks?
Exhausted Taxpayer, thank you for reading my blogs, please read the most current on the Jefferson incident wherein the NJSPCA, is actually suing on behalf of a black bear cub killed by a dog trespassing in the dog’s backyard.
The NJSPCA, is attempting to have the owner put in jail. So here we go with taxpayers’ time and money being wasted on this non-sense and who do the pet owners sue when the bears attack and kill domestic pets? The NJSPCA I hope.
This has got to end, the black bear issue in N.J. has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars, court time and politicians time and literally infringed on human safety and tax paid for property.
Write the Governor and DEP Commissioner, they need to hear from the “silent-majority” only then will we see this resolved; How?
A hunt, charge for black bear permits reduce the population and cover expenses at the same time.
Mike D.
we would very much appreciate if we could interveiw you. It is for a project we are doing and we are required to have an interveiw with an expert. would you be willing to answer some of our questions?
I consider myself an expert of research and putting real, factual information on this blog that can be easily confirmed. If you can ask your questions on this blog I would be happy to respond.
Mike D
sorry about the large delay.
As we said we are doing a project and can get caught up in things.
question 1: what is new jersey doing to solve the overlaod of bears?
we are very sorry for the large delay
like we said we are doing a project and it can get pretty busy
question 1: what is NJ doing to solve the overload of Bears?
hi
I live on the border of warren and morris counties in new jersey. I have only seen black bears on one occassion. This was in vernon, nj. They were walking under a charlift on a trail that was not open due to insufficient amount of snow at mountain creek ski resort. I was more intrigued by the mother and two cubs then I was scared. I moved to nj from queens, ny where the only wildlife we have is birds, house pets, and maybe raccoons. I moved out here knowing there could be bears or coyotes and that I have to be careful. I feel that if you want to move into suburban wooded areas this is a threat you should expect. If you don’t want wildlife than move to a city. If anything maybe we need human population control.
Hi Joe and thank you for the reply. You may have missed the problem in Blairstown last year wherein the Mayor contacted the Governor and then DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson, on behalf of the residents living with (13) black bears within 750 yards of the school. The F&W worked on dispersing the lot.
Residents of Vernon have more black bear problems than most other areas and that is not restricted to Mountain Creek Resort but in nearly every lake community and other areas as well.
A good number of residents of these areas have lived here for decades, when the black bear population was in numbers that allowed for a peaceful and safe co-existence. Here we agree again with the animal-rights/anti-huntng hunting groups as they site the further development of land that encroached upon the black bears natural habitant contributing to the overpopulation issues.
Do you then believe it is fair to suggest that long term residents, or any residents especially in this economy, that are victims of developers as well, just abandon families and friends, change jobs, relocate children to new schools because black bears present a danger to their families safety? Even if someone wanted to move, the housing market is dead, the economy is a mess that is going to be with us for a while, do we need to add the dangers associated with overpopulated black bears?
Joe, of course we “needed” human population control from greedy developers that did not and do not care about the black bears. But the damage is done, black bear overpopulation has been proven by the drastic increase in damage and danger to human safety as over (65) houses were broken into last year, people injured, thank God none seriously, livestock and domestic pets not so fortunate as many were killed and mauled. Already this year the bears are more active than ever with the police having to shoot a few due to dangerous incidents involving human saftey.
If (65) humans broke into houses they would be pursued and prosecuted; in fact if a human kills a domestic pet they would be and have been, sentenced to a jail term; why then should a black bear be let off and by the way the shooting of a few has not even made a dent in the problem?
I don’t know Joe, if they do not allow a hunt then the black bear faces a worse future as the time will come when they will be labeled vermin. Remember, no one is advocating hunting the bears to extinction, just to a safe, co-existing number.
One other animal-right/anti-hunting myth to dispel, Vernon, West Milford, Blairstown, Sussex, Franklin, etc all border state hunting lands, as well as, private hunting land so a hunt would in fact include the culling of bears that roam the backyards and developments next to these same state lands. This would then allow the remaining bears to occupy the vacated woods while at the same time associating humans with danger to further discourage visits to nearby areas.
This is not a hunting issue as believe it or not many hunters are not interested in hunting black bears. It is however, the only proven method of black bear population control as proven in (26) other states where both Democratic and Republican Governors have left that assignment to the trained, professional Fish & Wildlife Biologists. These Governors have not allowed the animal-right/anti-hunting lobbyists to turn this into a political football, they put human safety, welfare and rights first.
The country is a beautiful place I worked in New York City for (5) years could not wait to get back to N.J. every day.
Everyone living in black bear country is aware that they have to be careful but we are no match for the overpopulated, non-human fearing, black bear and human safety should always be the first concern.
Wishing you a peaceful spring and summer.
Mike D
Hey, nice tips. Perhaps I’ll buy a glass of beer to the person from that forum who told me to visit your site
Thank you for the kind remarks, they sound real good when compared to the nonsense off a David Pike, read his comments and my reply if you have a chance.
Mike D
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
Hi Sandra, thank you and please pass on the site to others as we need people to know the truth about the overpopulted black bear and the damage they have caused. More importantly, they have to understand the dangers of allowing the bear population to just increase to whatever numbers.
Mike D
I stumbled upon this blog as I was looking for a hot line to help me. I live on 565 in Vernon (sussex) NJ. I have a fairly large parcel of land, which I purchased 10 years ago so my childen, and grandchilden would have a place and a reason to visit my wife and I. I have lived in Vernon for 30 years. The last two evenings, 4 bears have been visiting. A mother and 3 cubs in their 3rd season. Over the last 10 years I witnessed the bears go from a once in a while visit to daily visit, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. My kitchen door has deep claw marks where the bears have tried to claw their way in. Moral to the story is… nobody want to visit. Can you blame them? Small childern wouldn’t stand a chance.. not to mention seniors trying to out run one. The largest bear is well over 600lbs. A monster by any standards. He ignors air horns and whistles…. He is in charge and it’s scary… I’m not a hunter, and in fact, love animals. I follow all the rules… garbage, bird feeders etc. But they are over running my home and making it unpleasant to live here. They have killed a pet bunny, and I know they will kill one of my old dogs if left out. And I fear the worst.. when my Grandchildren visit.
It’s time to manage these beautiful animals. Developement has all but stopped here for years now, yet the bears are more numerious then ever. It has nothing to do with development.. They need to be harvested.
Hi Richard, thank you for reading my blog and more importantly I thank you for not being a hunter who, respects the beauty of the black bear, yet still understands that they must be managed through hunting to a safe number that allows for a peaceful coexistence with humans and domestic pets.
Like you Richard we have dogs, even horses and we worry about them and more importantly like you we have grandchildren and they are a major concern.
What anti-hunters/animal-right people and “let me be clear about these groups” because they are not animal lovers as you seem to be, they are all about stopping a black bear hunt in New Jersey. The reason; they have lost the battle in (26) other states and N.J. was their last battleground. Therefore, this year when Governonor Christi made it clear that there will be a black bear hunt they have no place else to go.
But Richard, they will try, they will waste taxpayers money for frivolous lawsuits in an economy where people are losing jobs, homes and health.
So keep spreading the word, drop the Governor a line you can send him an e-mail, goggle the Governor and you will easily be able to send him a quick note supporting his decision to endorse the black bear hunt.
Once we get the hunt in place and follow up each year the black bear will quickly learn to avoid humans and they will find more room in their own natural environment.
You can bet they do not like the interaction with humans especially the picture seekers that follow and pester them constantly.
I think black bears are beautiful, but all the black bears in N.J. are not worth one faithful domestic pet and certainly no where near one human life.
Stay alert, watch those dogs and grandchildren I never let my dog out unless I am nearby and likewise for the grandchildren, have something legal ready to defend them and yourself, you can by bear-spray at any local sporting good store.
Watch my blog njbearhunt.com I write new opeds often,
Mike D
I have lived in Vernon, NJ for almost 25 years. There are lots of bears up here yet I have never had a threat from them, or has any resident that I know. Yes, there is a lot of fear from some folks, which this article is working hard to multiply, but the fact is if you long for the bear free environment of somewhere like Bergen County then the answer is to move there.
Along these lines we have a neighbor that moved here recently to “be in the country”, and then he promptly cut down every tree on his property. His place is now the only one in the area that looks like the type of suburbs that he moved away from. I have been seeing this more and more up here.
So, since there are plenty of places where you can live that are already the way you would like it….go there. Please.
Hi Joe, thank you for the typical, boring non-sense reply; OK Joe, we that have problems with overpopulated black bears will just move out and let them “continue” to take over. What the heck, they are already breaking into our garages and houses, killing domestic pets and livestock and attacking humans, Kinnelon police just had to shoot another “house breaker-inner” last week. Let’s just ignore these warning signs, listen to people like you and wait around until a black bear kills some child or any human.
Live the way I like it, like you know that Joe; well I do live on several acres bordering over 20,000 acres of state land and watershed property and yes plenty of trees.
Bergen County, gee sorry the black bears are there, here, there and everywhere in New Jersey.
Many of us have lived in and enjoyed the country for as long as you have, we enjoyed it because black bears had their space and humans had theirs. Please don’t hit the “black bears were here first button”, because they were here on your property before you but you still occupy a house there, don’t you?
There is no logic to allowing a wild animal to multiply to whatever numbers they can reach then become a threat to humans.
Twenty-six out of twenty-states with large black bear populations cannot be wrong about endorsing hunting as part of black bear population control. Even the most liberal California gets it right when it comes to human safety, culling over 1700 + black bears annually.
Well Joe,now we have a Governor that clearly understood the black bear problem and he was elected on the platform of “a black bear hunt? YES”.
Finally a Governor that doesn’t have to worry about losing a handfull of loud anti-hunting/animal-right groups votes, he was elected without their support.
So if you are not happy with that, here is a good option for you; move out of New Jersey but be sure the state you chose does not have a black bear issue, because you will just find hunting again.
Oh, just to be clear this is not about the so-called trophy hunters, there are millions of non-hunting citizens in N.J. that have the common-sense to understand and support hunting as part of wildlife management control.
Mike D