The Endangered Species List

Maybe it's time to review how a species get on the endangered species list. When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service is investigating the health of a species, they look at scientific data collected by local, state and national scientists.

In order to be listed as a candidate, a species has to be found to qualify for protected status under the Endangered Species Act.
Whether or not a species is listed as endangered or threatened then depends on a number of factors, including the urgency and whether adequate protections exist through other means.
When deciding whether a species should be added to the Endangered Species List, the following criteria are evaluated:

• Has a large percentage of the species vital habitat been degraded or destroyed?
• Has the species been over-consumed by commercial, recreational, scientific or educational uses?
• Is the species threatened by disease or predation?
• Do current regulations or legislations inadequately protect the species?
• Are there other manmade factors that threaten the long-term survival of the species?

If scientific research reveals that the answer to one or more of the above questions is yes, then the species can be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

What does Endangered Species Act protection mean?
Once a species becomes listed as "endangered" or "threatened," it receives special protections by the federal government.  Animals are protected from “take” and being traded or sold. A listed plant is protected if on federal property or if federal actions are involved, such as the issuing of a federal permit on private land.

The term "take" is used in the Endangered Species Act to include, "harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct." The law also protects against interfering in vital breeding and behavioral activities or degrading critical habitat.

The primary goal of the Endangered Species Act is to make species' populations healthy and vital so they can be delisted from the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service actively invest time and resources to bringing endangered or threatened species back from the brink of extinction.   

Why should we protect Threatened and Endangered species?
The Endangered Species Act is very important, because it saves our native fish, plants and wildlife from going extinct. Once they are gone, they are gone forever and there is no going back. Losing even a single species can have disastrous impacts on the rest of the ecosystem, because the effects will be felt throughout the food chain.

From providing cures to deadly diseases to maintaining natural ecosystems and improving overall quality of life, the benefits of preserving threatened and endangered species are invaluable.

Source:  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Endangered

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Basics of the ESA

Farmers' Markets Continue in Winter

Not all, but many local farmers' markets continue through the autumn and winter.

A post at njconservation.org reminds us that although warm-weather crops are gone, some farmers' markets still offer cold-season vegetables, artisan cheeses, homemade pickles and preserves, wines, eggs from free-range chickens, baked goods, jellies and jams, locally-raised meats and poultry, and more.

Some winter markets are:

• The Paterson Farmers Market, on Railway Avenue along the old Erie Railroad line, is open 365 days a year. 
• Jersey City has two farmers markets that will remain open through December. The market by the Grove Street PATH station is open Mondays and Thursdays, while the one at the Hamilton Park gazebo is open Wednesdays. 
• The Hunterdon Land Trust Farmers Market, located at the Dvoor Farm at the Route 12 circle outside Flemington, is open on the third Sunday of the month from December through April. 
• The Stockton Market is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays all year 'round.  
• The Rutgers Gardens Farm Market in New Brunswick will be open Fridays, Nov. 30, Dec. 14 and Dec. 21; the rest of the winter schedule is yet to be determined.  
• The Princeton Farmers Market will open in the local library on the second Thursday of the month through April.  
• The Englishtown Auction, an intriguing combination of farmer's market, craft fair and flea market, is open weekends all year 'round in Manalapan.  
• The Cowtown Farmers Market in Pilesgrove is open year 'round on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

A full list of New Jersey farmers markets is at the NJ Department of Agriculture's Jersey Fresh website at state.nj.us/jerseyfresh/searches/urban.htm.

Also check out Edible Jersey at www.ediblecommunities.com/jersey/farmers-markets/.

Six-Day Bear Hunt Ends for 2012

Bear brought in by hunter at the DEP bear hunt weigh station in Franklin.

New Jersey's annual six-day bear hunt ended at sunset today. Though final numbers are not available yet, 228 bears were killed as of Thursday. Most of the bears taken were in Sussex County as the hunt was conducted in an area west of Route 287 and north off Route 80.

The hunt is the state's method to control the black bear population which is now estimated at about 2,900 in the hunting area.

Environmental Protection Department biologists expect a harvest similar to last year's, when 469 bears were killed.

According to NJ.com, the hunt is here to stay.

Although the number of bears in northwestern New Jersey have been thinned over three consecutive state-sponsored hunts, those numbers still need to be cut in half, the director of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife said today.

"We still have a ways to go," David Chanda, the division’s director, said hours before this year’s six-day hunt ended today. "We have more black bear per square mile than anywhere else in North America."

Those opposed to the hunts, who took their challenge to the state Supreme Court before it was thrown out in April, said they are shocked at the prospect of cutting the bear population in half.

"That’s ridiculous," said Doris Lin, an attorney for the Animal Protection League of New Jersey and the Bear Education and Resource group. "They just keep changing the goal to keep having these recreational hunts."

The bear population in northwestern New Jersey stood at 3,400 in the months before the first hunt in 2010. Before this year’s hunt began, the number of bears had dropped to between 2,800 and 3,000, state officials said.

A "more reasonable" number is between 1,200 to 1,500, Chanda said.

Dozens of people from animal-rights groups used bullhorns to voice their outrage today outside the Whittingham Fish and Wildlife Management Area check station in Fredon. The protesters are also supporting a bill by State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) that would ban baiting bears with food and require certain residences in core bear habitat to use bear-resistant garbage containers.

2012 New Jersey Bear Hunt Begins December 3

Tomorrow, December 3, is the start of New Jersey’s always controversial six-day black bear hunt for 2012 that is part of the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife’s “Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy.” This will be the third annual hunt which is part of a five-year plan.

Once again, along with the hunters will be protesters. Protests against the bear hunt are scheduled for 10 am on Monday, Dec. 3 and Saturday, Dec 8, at the Whittingham Wildlife Management Area, in Fredon, NJ. (see www.savenjbears.com)

While the state sees the hunt as “managing” the bear population, protesters see it as simply "killing." The protests will not stop this year's hunt, but those against the hunt are hoping to affect future hunts.

Most New Jerseyeans do not hunt, so there are large numbers of people who oppose the hunt. But NJ's black bears are not "endangered" as a population. The estimate of bears living in the northwestern part of the state is now 2,800 to 3,000. That is down from the 3,400 estimated in 2010. That was the year that NJ adopted its comprehensive bear management policy to decrease the number of animals.

Though black bears historically existed in the state, they were considered to be nonexistent within the state by the 1970s. It is likely that they "reintroduced" themselves to NJ by crossing parts of the Delaware River from Pennsylvania into the rural northwestern part of the state.

Pennsylvania's statewide bear hunting season ended yesterday, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. By day three of the four-day hunt, 2442 bears were harvested throughout the state.

This hunt is different from the typical hunting season such as those for deer in NJ. (The New Jersey black bear hunting season is held concurrently with the Six-day Firearm Deer Season.) The bear population has been scouted, targeted and even baited prior to the hunt. Baiting, which is done with vegetables, carcasses, honey and other sweets, lures bears. In NJ, an elevated hunting stand must be at least 300 feet from the bait, but The Humane Society of the US reported in 2009 that bear baiting is banned in 18 of the 28 states that allow bear hunting.

Last year's hunted had a reported harvest of 469 bears.

On the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife(DFW) side of this controversy is their own evidence that non-lethal means of bear management (birth control and the 2002 bear feeding law, for example) have been ineffective ways to manage the population.

But for non-hunters, it is difficult to look away from the hunt, especially when it allows the killing of any sex or size black bear, including cubs.

The six-day bear hunt focuses on the northwestern part of the state and, because the number of bears is down, it is expected that the number of hunters and kills will also be down this year.

The Star-Ledger reports that this year there are no last-minute legal actions to block the hunt and that animal-rights protesters were still fighting in court last week to have the right to demonstrate near the various bear weigh-in check stations.

The bear population is down after the past two consecutive hunts and the number of complaints about problem bears is also down. Does this mean the hunt has been a "success?"

The New Jersey plan has been that the decline in the bear population will make encounters between humans and bears rare, and that at the end of the five-year period, the DFW will decide its next management steps, which includes the fate of the bear hunt.

The controversy continues...

• Earlier posts on hunts and information on black bears in NJ
• NJ Fish, Game & Wildlife bear page  www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/bearfacts.htm
• Bear-proofing www.bearsmartnj.org
• Bear-activism www.savenjbears.com