New Jersey has lots of bears, too many given the cramped quarters of the Garden State. There’s still some wilderness left in the state, and developers in western and northern Jersey keep on knocking down trees and building homes out in bear country, giving the bears an endless supply of tasty garbage. They have lots of road kill deer to munch on. The bears have got it made in Jersey. In order to thin the bear population to a reasonable number, New Jersey has approved a bear hunt for five days next month, December 8th through the 13th, in an area bounded by route 78 and route 287. But the environmentalists and animal rights people are in an uproar and are using everything in their arsenal to stop the hunt. They haven’t had much success in NJ state courts, so they’re turning to the federal courts [ link]. Part of hunting area includes national parks and the suit claims NJ doesn’t have the legal authority to permit hunting in places like the Delaware Water Gap. Amongst the many charges, the suit alleges that the state has issued permits to convicted felons. If this hunt does go off, it’ll be lots of fun to watch the enviro-nuts running around with air horns and bells chasing away the bears and really ticking off the hunters. But my guess is McGreevey will get cold feet and cancel the hunt.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2003 at 2:02 am and is filed under New Jersey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.