NJ Bear Hunt Is Underway

Thick fog may have reduced the number of

hunters participating on the first day Monday of New Jersey’s six-day hunt.

Environmental Protection Department officials are still tallying

up the number of hunters. There’s no official count yet of the

number of bears killed.
  

State officials say the hunt is needed to reduce the state’s bruin population, now estimated at about 3,400.

Critics claim the state’s bear management policy is flawed and was developed arbitrarily. They are in court Monday hoping to win the right to demonstrate at the Franklin bear check station in

Sussex County.

DEP officials say they’ll allow protests at any site but Franklin because of safety concerns. 

The groups say the other bear weigh stations provide them “much less visibility.”

 (Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)