A quiet campaign in bear country
08/04/07 14:22
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After hunt was canceled, workers go door-to-door
to teach residents about
safety Friday, April 06, 2007 BY BRIAN T. MURRAY Star-Ledger Staff The trash cans along Jefferson Township's Garret Road tell the tale. Gnawed, clawed and punctured by sharp teeth, even a lone yellow receptacle marked "Bear Resistant" carries the marks of New Jersey black bears. They love garbage, especially now as they awake from winter dens to find natural foods still scarce in the early-spring forests. "There's no such thing as bear-proof cans," said resident Paul Kasauskas, who keeps his trash in a steel toolchest, known as a "gang box." "They've even knocked that over once, but only once. Everybody should get one." |
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He gave the advice to a state conservation
officer, one of 30 state Department of
Environmental Protection workers who went
door-to-door last week to check whether people
are inviting bear problems by leaving trash
unsecured or bird feeders unattended. It marked
the start of DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson's
nonlethal plan for dealing with a growing bear
population.
The last, large-scale estimate on their numbers was released by the DEP in 2003, when biologists said as many as 3,200 bruins roam the northwestern corner of the state. But biologists have since explained that 400 to 600 cubs are born every January, and a lot of them will be digging into trash cans this spring. Jackson will actively enforce a state law that bans the feeding of bears, even inadvertently when people carelessly leave trash, bird feeders and pet bowls within easy reach. The door-to-door campaign or "sweep," as the DEP called it, is a first step. Conservation Officer Charles Fletcher found the sweep to be more of a methodical march last week as residents like Kasauskas eagerly passed on tales of bear problems. "I thought I was going to get through this neighborhood in a few minutes. But people are very receptive. They seem to want to talk about the bears," the officer said. The sweep will continue to target about 50 neighborhoods in Morris, Sussex, Warren, Bergen and Passaic counties, where homes abut large tracts of undeveloped land. "Overall, we were very warmly received as we hit 1,700 households," said Assistant Commissioner Jay Watson. "There are opportunities for people to improve, but overall we found that most were aware of the things they needed to do and were doing them." There are skeptics, particularly since Jackson preceded her campaign by canceling a hunt last fall that was aimed at curbing the growth of the bear population. "It's important that people keep their garbage away from bears. But without hunts to keep the bear population from growing, all we will be doing is managing people and not managing the bears," said Jeanette Vreeland, chairwoman of the state Fish and Game Council. The state held its first hunt in more than 30 years in 2003, killing nearly 328 bears. A follow-up hunt was canceled in 2004, when the state Supreme Court ordered the state to first adopt a detailed bear management policy. Then-DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell and the council, an appointed panel that sets hunting regulations, drafted a policy in 2005. The DEP said it would continue education and trash control programs, and a second hunt was held, killing 298 bears. But Jackson dumped the policy and hunt last year, prompting a lawsuit by conservation and hunting groups. An appeals court set an August hearing date after the DEP asked for time to work on a new non-lethal policy with the council. The council, however, is not inclined to eliminate hunting as a management tool. "Even if you eliminated everything that can attract bears to homes, you are still left with a growing bear population that gets bigger every year. Just managing people does not address that," Vreeland said. Undaunted, Jackson has asked Gov. Jon Corzine for $850,000 to hire new conservation officers, biologists and technicians to help control troublesome bears. But bears are already waking from their dens. A 532-pound bruin was killed in Stillwater last month after breaking into a home 11 times. Soon, young male bruins will begin roaming the Garden State to establish their own territories in the pre-mating season. "The money is not yet in the budget, so the additional staff have naturally not been brought on yet. But we will allocate resources within the department as we deem necessary to deal with it," said Watson, adding that the DEP may transfer people from existing jobs. This is not New Jersey's first large-scale, non-lethal bear campaign. In 2000, when the state canceled its first proposed bear hunt, the DEP received $1.1 million to hire seven people, buy new bear control equipment and launch education programs. Local police also were trained to condition bears to stay clear of humans. The bear population was estimated at 1,500 then. By 2002, the numbers grew and the DEP funding dried up. The new staff disappeared and, for the past year, only two people in the Division of Fish and Wildlife have been handling bear complaints while trying to conduct biological studies. Those studies continue to show a healthy and growing bear population. "During our winter den work this year, we reached 12 females and found they had 41 cubs, which is an average of 3.4 cubs per sow," said Larry Herrighty, chief of the state's Bureau of Wildlife Management. Bears are mating as young as 3 years old, and the cub survival rate is 100 percent. The story is the same in Pennsylvania, lower New York and in other parts of the mid-Atlantic states. All have growing bear populations, which they attribute to a regrowth of the Eastern forests and natural food supplies, such as berries, nuts and mast crops. Bear reproduction is tightly linked to the availability of food, and mid-Atlantic bears have the added benefit of rich farmland and morsels left behind in human trash cans. "If we do everything they ask in these state pamphlets, is that going to stop the bears from coming down here? I don't think so," said Kasauskas, holding the education pamphlet handed to him by DEP workers. "The bears are always going to come down here. But everyone should do something to keep their garbage away from the bears," he said. |
