From time to time, I hear it said that the Sierra Club is pro-hunting.

For the record, here is what the Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter had to say in reaction to an announcement—long awaited by hunters—that New Jersey has finally approved a bear management plan that includes a hunting season.

“The state has eliminated funds for education, programs that deal with garbage, bear aversion therapy, bear wardens, conservation officers, and other non-lethal methods of management.

“The Sierra Club opposes the bear hunt and will continue to fight for a strong bear management plan that actually works."

The full press release is here.

Call me crazy but that does not sound pro-hunting. And I do not think that educational information about bear-proofing your garbage needs any significant funding. It’s all over the Internet, or you could even pick up the phone and call the game and fish department.

And the conservation officers New Jersey already has don’t have time to be conservation officers because they—and the police—are too busy answering bear nuisance complaints, coaxing bears off porches and away from schoolbus stops, and dragging road-killed bears off the highways.

As for management plans “that actually work,” Sierra Club NJ might do well look at nearby states like New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia – all of which have bear hunting seasons-- and compare the number of bear nuisance complaints, not to mention the overall health of the bear populations in those states. Hunting in those states has kept bears within their carrying capacity, whereas in New Jersey, bears are fast outpacing theirs.