New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bob Martin has approved a comprehensive black bear management policy that would include the state’s first black bear hunt since 2005 to deal with an overpopulation of bears and problems they are causing, especially in northern parts of the state.

According to a press release from the DEP, the policy also includes public education, research, bear habitat analysis and protection, non-lethal bear management techniques and enhanced efforts to keep human food sources, especially household trash, away from bears to limit troubling bear-human encounters.

“It is clear that a historical rise in public complaints regarding black bears is correlated with the growing bear population. This public safety issue cannot be ignored,” said Martin, who approved the new policy after it was reviewed and unanimously recommended by the state Fish and Game Council.

“This science- and fact-based policy recognizes that hunting is an important bear management tool in combination with nonlethal controls of problem bears, public education on coexisting with bears and enforcement of laws to reduce conflicts between bears and people.

“Although I respect that some New Jersey residents are opposed to hunting bears, hunting is the only proven and most costeffective method of wildlife population control and it is used successfully by other states with viable bear populations,” said Martin.

According to the press release, the bear population in northwestern New Jersey has grown from 500 bears in 1992 to more than 3,400 bears today, and bears have now been encountered in all 21 New Jersey counties.

Despite response to problem bears by DEP personnel and trained local police officers, bear complaints continue to rise. There were 1,261 black bear incidents, including 76 Category One aggressive incidents, reported to the DEP between Jan.1 and June 20. So far this year, 13 aggressive black bears have been euthanized, compared to eight bears during the same period in 2009, according to the Division of Fish and Wildlife. Many other aggressive bears have not been caught.

A black bear hunt would take place in December, concurrent with the six-day firearm deer hunting season, with specific rules to be set up by the DEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife in coming months. It would be held in portions of a 1,000-squaremile area north of Route 80 in Morris, Sussex, Warren and Passaic counties.

While more than 9,000 comments were received by the state Fish and Game Council regarding the new policy, including many that opposed hunting, no scientifically proven alternative was presented, said Martin.

“This is a truly comprehensive new black bear policy that takes advantage of the most current management tools available to us and will properly guide us in managing this most valued wildlife resource,” he said.

Since the 1980s, New Jersey’s black bear population has been increasing and expanding southward and eastward from forested areas of northwestern New Jersey. There have been increased sightings of bears this year in many suburban towns and urban areas, where black bears have not been previously been encountered, according to the DEP.