Coming on the heels of this past week’s vote by the state’s Fish and Game Council in favor of a black bear management policy that includes a hunt, the Bear Education and Resource (BEAR) Group has announced a lawsuit against the Council for "alleged violations of the Open Public Meetings Act Law (OPMA)."
The West Milford-based BEAR Group is opposed to killing bears, and group director Janet Piszar had told Suburban Trends in January that the organization would be "waging a comprehensive campaign to oppose the bear hunt."
On March 11, two days after the Fish and Game Council’s (FGC) move to advance its proposed policy, the BEAR Group announced its decision to file suit against the council, "after believing that illegal meetings had been held."
Those alleged illegal meetings, the group’s press statement claims, happened "on at least two occasions, Nov. 10 and Dec. 15, 2009," when "a quorum of FGC members met in Game Committee meetings to discuss management policies for game animals which include black bears and the reinstatement of a highly controversial bear hunt."
The group alleges that "a quorum of Council members and many Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) staff" worked together outside the public purview in violation of the OPMA law, "without a resolution that specifies the legal OPMA exemption as to why the meeting is being closed to the public."
But Len Wolgast, chairman of the Game Committee, said all the Council’s regular meetings are open, but subcommittee meetings, including the Game Committee, don’t have to be.
"This lawsuit for alleged violations of the Open Public Meetings Act Law, is only the first formal claim made by the BEAR Group that will ultimately reveal the lack of integrity and credibility of the Division of Fish and Wildlife and the Fish and Game Council," Piszar wrote in an e-mail to Suburban Trends.
"We will produce additional concrete evidence as to why a bear hunt must not be endorsed by the governor and the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) commissioner."
The Fish and Game Council voted to advance its proposed comprehensive black bear management policy at the March 9 meeting held in Robbinsville. All seven council members voted in favor of the hunt that would begin in December.
The policy still needs the approval of acting DEP Commissioner Bob Martin, who released a statement on Tuesday, saying: "In recent weeks, I have met with Council members to discuss a range of black bear issues and the need for a multi-faceted management strategy that is based on solid science and the latest research. I intend to scrutinize this proposed policy to make sure it provides the best possible solutions to the considerable challenge of managing this valued wildlife resource in the nation's most densely populated state."
Martin’s statement highlighted that a New Jersey Superior Court ruling in 2007 requires the DEP commissioner to approve the Council's policy before it is submitted for adoption in accordance with the New Jersey Administrative Procedure Act.
"The Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy's integrated approach to managing black bears includes research and monitoring, non-lethal and lethal control of problem bears, public education on coexisting with bears, law enforcement to reduce conflicts between bears and people, and a controlled hunt," he said.
The FGC’s proposed Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy can be viewed at: www.njfishandwildlife.com/bearpolicy10.htm.
The policy has incorporated the results of ongoing bear management studies, including the new population estimate that researchers at East Stroudsburg University found to be at 3,438 bears in the state in 2009. Statistics gathered by the DFW show a 62 percent rise in bear numbers in Sussex and Passaic counties between 2002 and 2007.
Sierra Club opposition
The NJ Sierra Club, which strongly opposes the FGC’s plan to allow a bear hunt starting in December also released a statement following the Council’s vote, that expresses the group’s view that "the hunt is unnecessary and undermines the need for a real bear management program that focuses on education and non-lethal alternatives to hunting."
"Today’s action by the Fish and Game Council is a step backward for bear management in New Jersey," NJ Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel said. "A hunt is not a bear management program."
The organization, which Ringwood resident Tittel emphasizes is not an "animal rights group," would support a management hunt under the right circumstances.
"If you’re going to have a hunt to deal with bear problems, have a management hunt, not a recreational hunt," Tittel told Suburban Trends.
He explained that in a management hunt, zones are set up, which hunters go into and start with the more populated areas to target the so-called nuisance bears.
