In New Jersey and across North America, Black Bears are considered an umbrella species............... Their presence or absence may be an indicator of the health and connectivity of an ecosystem............... In addition, because they have the ability to travel great distances feeding on fruits and berries, bears disperse the seeds of many different plant species............ When foraging, bears clear small amounts of vegetation, which opens up space for additional plants to grow, optimizing biodiversity..............According to the Rutgers University and the State Agricultural Extension Station, in 2011 New Jersey had roughly 2800 Bears...........This was two years into the state sponsored annual 6 day hunt taking place in December...........In 2010 592 bears killed, 2011 saw 469 shot, with 287. 251, 272 and this years hunt which blew away 472 of the Bruins...........And before this past week of the 2015 hunt, the state was insisting that 3500 bears still inhabited the Garden State.............Seems faulty math to me ladies and gents..............2800 Bears on the ground in 2011,,,,,,,,,,,,with 1751 killed off through yesterday, Dec 13, 2015.............Bears are slow producing animals.............And now 4 more days of carnage to come starting this Wednesday because 700 or the supposed 20% of the 3500 population not stomped out?.............As Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club states: “Enough is enough; 472 bears have been killed in less than a week".......... "The hunt has done enough damage without managing bears".............. "Extending it just means the continuation of bears dying for failed policies"........... ... "This hunt has not been about managing bears or dealing with nuisance bears, it has been nothing more than a trophy hunt"................. "We don’t have an education plan, we don’t have garbage management, and we don’t have the conservation officers needed to implement these things"............ "All we have is more dead bears and the same nuisance problems as before"

4 MORE DAYS ADDED TO NEW 
JERSEY BLACK BEAR HUNT

Check out this story on dailyrecord.com: http://dailyre.co/1YdoVeB

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