Plan to force N.J. residents to bring in their bird feeders at night ruffles feathers

Bird enthusiasts are sounding the alarm about a new wildlife bill winding its way through the state Legislature that critics say could restrict when New Jerseyans hang up their bird feeders.
All those ruffled feathers are distracting from the real issue — addressing the root causes of New Jersey’s black bear problems — according to the bill’s sponsors and proponents.
Under the current version of the measure, bird feeders in the state would be restricted between April 1 and Nov. 30 — the time of year when black bears are most active. Anyone looking to string up bird feeders would have to suspend them 10 feet off the ground, bring them in at night and keep bird seed from dropping to the ground below and attracting bears.
Those who hang their bird feeders at the wrong times could face steep fines.
However, the bill, which proposes revising an old law regulating the feeding of black bears, is now being reworked by sponsors in both the state Assembly and Senate. The bird feeder provision is being stripped out entirely in the legislation, A360 and S765, according to the offices of Assemblyman Sterley Stanley, D-Middlesex, and Sen. Gordon Johnson, D-Bergen, two of the sponsors.
The rewritten version of the bill will focus on trash management, which constitutes “99% of the problem” with bears, according to Angi Metler, the executive director of the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, a nonprofit advocacy group.
Improper trash containment is an irresistible temptation to hungry bears that gets them used to human food and spaces, causing a cascade of other issues, Metler said.
The state Department of Environmental Protection already has guidelines suggesting birdfeeders be brought in at night so they don’t attract bears. The new legislation would have fined first-time offenders between $100 to $500, and subsequent offenders $300 to $1,000.
“It’s just asinine. Absolutely asinine,” said Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, R-Sussex.
Fantasia said the proposed bird feeder restrictions “hit a nerve like you wouldn’t believe” with her and her constituents, particularly because the legislation was seen as coming from lawmakers who live in less bear-dense parts of the state. Conservative commentators and backyard bird feeding companies also came out swinging against the bill.
The Animal Protection League of New Jersey, which is involved in the drafting of the language of the bill, has felt the force of the backlash.
“If I hear one more thing about bird feeders, I’m going to start crying or screaming or something,” Metler joked. “Because it’s turning what should be a discussion about effective trash management into something that makes everybody hate the bill.”
Versions of the measure have been percolating in the Legislature for years — so long that few can remember who first proposed the bird feeder rules.
In September, the Assembly Commerce, Economic Development and Agriculture Committee voted 8-3 in favor of advancing the bill. Some lawmakers, including Fantasia and Assemblyman Brian Bergen, R-Morris, raised concerns about the proposed legislation during the committee hearing.
Brian Hackett, the director of government relations for the Associated Humane Societies, said he and Bergen discussed alternate ways to cut down on bears coming near humans.
The pair agreed a program to “incentivized homeowners to be able to get bear-resistant containers” might be a better solution, Hackett said.
“That would probably be a much better policy approach than nibbling around the edges with ‘unintentional’ and ‘intentional,’ and who’s getting fined and who’s not,” Hackett said.
Bear advocates have tried unsuccessfully for years to get legislators to back a statewide trash management program, only to be stymied by concerns about who would foot the bill. “So when nobody wants to talk about trash management, you have to do what you can, which is talk about secondary methods like hand-feeding and bird feeders,” Metler said.
Bergen told NJ Advance Media he’d be “more supportive” of a bear-feeding bill if it focused on educating the public and investing in a program to get bear-resistant containers into residents’ hands.
He is unsure if he would support the current bill, even if the bird feeder provision is removed. “There are other problems with the bill, too,” Bergen said, citing the proposed penalties for unintentionally feeding bears.
“It’s crazy, crazy, crazy,” he said. “If you have a garden in your yard, and a bear comes and eats from your garden, under the way the bill is drafted, you’re in violation just as much as for not having secured your garbage.”
Doris Lin, the Animal Protection League’s director of legal affairs, said she is advising the state Office of Legislative Services on the bill’s language and the group would be open to lowering the proposed fines.
The league is currently “in the homework phase,” Metler said, and is looking to meet with the state’s biggest trash haulers and container manufacturers to get their feedback going forward.
Alexander Krasutsky, Stanley’s chief of staff, said the bill’s sponsors are weighing suggestions from the state Department of Environmental Protection, though he declined to specify what those amendments might be.
“We have a view here at our office that the defining line between good and bad policy is not its obvious good intentions, but its discrete unintended consequences,” Krasutsky said. “So we’re currently in the process of making sure there aren’t further unintended consequences with this bill.”
The debate over the bear-feeding legislation comes as the state is preparing for the second half of the annual bear hunt.
This year, the annual bear hunt runs from Oct. 14 to 19 and from Dec. 9 to 14. During the October phase, hunters killed 392 bears, up from 331 during the first half of the 2023 hunt, state officials said.
The hunting season was reinstated in New Jersey in 2022 after a four-year suspension. State officials said the bear population had increased and there was a spike in the number of bear-human incident reports.
The state Division of Fish and Wildlife has said it believes that the state’s bear population is on track to reach 4,000 bears within the next two years. Some bear advocates dispute the numbers, as well as the hunt’s efficacy.
The hunt doesn’t address the root causes of the bear issue, according to Hackett, director of government relations for the Associated Humane Societies.
“That starts with trash management and trash containment,” he said. “We’re never going to hunt our way out of these problems.”
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AJ McDougall may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @oldmcdougall.