Monday ushers in the second phase of New Jersey's bear hunt that will run until at least December 8. This phase will be limited to shotgun and muzzleloader rifles but exclude archers included in phase one. This segment may be extended by the state depending on how many bears are killed.

If it were up to Phil Murphy, it wouldn't be extended, because if it were up to only our governor there wouldn't be any bear hunt at all. Remember he used an executive order to prohibit bear hunting on all state land which meant hunters lost 40% of their territory. It also meant that in the first segment of the bear hunt only half the number of bears were culled compared to the year before.

Which in turn means over time there will be more bears in New Jersey. More bear-car encounters, more bear-human encounters, more property damage, etcetera. Murphy continues to live in a fantasy world where public meetings held at libraries telling people to not put bird seed outside and buy stronger trash cans is the way to control the bear population. He's wrong. His own people within the Department of Environmental Protection have told him as much, and he won't listen to them. But I guess you have to forgive the guy. His knowledge is more in the area of how to maintain the roads during winter storms. Oh wait...

So along with the second phase of the bear hunt there will surely be a second phase of protesters. Do you side with them and the governor? Or do you side with the experts on wildlife management who say the bear hunt is necessary? Take our poll.

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