On March 7, 2007, a New Jersey Appellate Court gave the State's Department of Environmental Protection until August 10 to attempt to develop a new black bear management policy. In November of 2006, the agency abruptly revoked the state's existing black bear management policy in an attempt to delete hunting from the state's arsenal of management tools. Safari Club International, together with the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs Inc. and U. S. Sportsmen's Alliance, sued the agency and has been battling in the state courts since then in an attempt to restore the illegally repealed policy and the annual bear hunt. The State, instead of answering the SCI group's legal challenges, asked the Court to give it time to develop a new black bear management policy. The SCI group opposed an open-ended delay and the Court gave the agency five months only to try to develop these new strategies. Under the Court's tight schedule, the agency will not be able to delay until the last minute determinations about whether the State will hold a 2007 black bear season. SCI will continue to pressure the agency to comply with the Court's schedule and to include harvests as part of the state's comprehensive management scheme.

Ralph Cunningham, President of Safari Club International, stated, "This has been a long and frustrating battle but we are pleased that the Court will not allow the State to delay its effort to provide comprehensive black bear management strategies. We are concerned that the State's environmental agency has left the State without the necessary methods to manage and control its growing black bear population, a problem made worse by the fact that the State did not hold a bear hunt 2006. We hope that over the next few months, the State will realize that non-lethal methods alone will not adequately manage the State's bears."

SCI-First For Hunters is the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and in promoting wildlife conservation worldwide. SCI's 179 Chapters represent all 50 United States as well as 13 other countries. SCI's proactive leadership in a host of cooperative wildlife conservation, outdoor education and humanitarian programs, with the SCI Foundation and other conservation groups, research institutions and government agencies, empowers sportsmen to be contributing community members and participants in sound wildlife management and conservation. Visit www.safariclub.org or call 520-620-1220 for more information.

Media Contact:
Anna Seidman, Litigation Counsel SCI-DC (202) 543-8733 aseidman@sci-dc.org