The policy also includes public education, research, bear habitat analysis and protection, non-lethal bear management techniques and enhanced efforts to keep human food sources, especially household trash, away from bears to limit troubling bear-human encounters.
The bear population in northwestern New Jersey has grown from 500 bears in 1992 to more than 3,400 bears today, and bears have now been encountered in all 21 New Jersey counties. Although bear-related complaints vary from year to year due to environmental factors, serious bear incidents have increased commensurate with the black bear population, up by 96 percent from 2006 through 2009, according to DEP wildlife officials. There have been several encounters with aggressive black bears in recent weeks, they noted.
Despite response to problem bears by DEP personnel and trained local police officers, bear
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