A plan to widen the bear hunt in New Jersey, including expansion into most of the northern part of the state, a longer hunting season, and the use of bows and arrows was approved today by a state council.

The proposal includes a new six day season in October, in addition to the December season, which could be lengthened. It also includes hunting in new parts of Hunterdon, Somerset, Morris and Passaic counties. Archery would also be allowed during part of the earlier season.

Those new parameters will mean increased kills -- especially since the October season will take place before the bears begin to hibernate, officials said. Under the plan, the state can add four days to the December hunt if one-fifth of the total bear population has not yet been killed by the end of the season.

State biologists say the bear population in the northwestern part of New Jersey is estimated at between 3,500 and 4,000 bruins -- and has only increased since annual hunts began in 2010.

The hunt was not killing enough bears to outpace reproduction, state biologists said. More hunters, and more kills, are needed to control the population, said Tony McBride, a state supervising wildlife biologist who presented the plan to the state Fish and Game Council this morning.

The council approved the proposal in an 8-0 vote. There will now be 60 days of public comment and the plan will also have to be approved by the state DEP commissioner.

"This is a responsible plan," said Dave Chanda, the director of the Division of Fish and Wildlife. "The annual hunting season in the northwestern part of the state has been an important tool in a comprehensive plan designed to control the bear population and reduce conflicts between bears and people."

Black bears had been all but extinct in New Jersey by the 1960s. But they made a convincing resurgence in the northwestern corner of the state - particularly in Sussex, Passaic, Morris and Warren counties. Single hunts were held in 2003 and 2005, amid legal battles between hunting groups and animal activists.

A five-year management plan passed in 2010 relied on a regular, one-week December hunt to thin the expanding bruin population. By the beginning of the 2010 hunt, the population was estimated at 3,400, officials said at the time. Despite the some 1,900 kills over the five hunts, reproduction has outpaced the "harvest," experts said.

The hunt became more modest over its five-year run. A record 592 kills were notched in 2010, but the number dwindled to 272 by the fifth hunt. Hunting advocates lobbied for a longer and expanded season, to thin the bears. The weather had significantly impacted several of the hunts. Wet and cold conditions are less hospitable to hunters waiting in tree stands or blinds out in the woods, experts have said.

Critics contend there are fewer bears overall -- and cast doubt on the state estimates.

The bears have been spreading throughout the state, experts said. There's been a marked increase in encounters in areas south of bear country, DEP records show. According to data from the DEP, the number of black bear sightings and complaints is up significantly in Hunterdon, Somerset, Monmouth, Mercer and Burlington counties from 2009 to 2013.

"Over time, this population has expanded south and east," McBride, the biologist, told the Fish and Game Council.

The animals have apparently followed greenways along the Delaware River, from Hunterdon County farms south to Camden and Burlington counties, officials said.

The new zones for bear hunting are shown in this map provided by the DEP, in a light color around the number "5," and extending from Hunterdon County east, curving upward to Passaic County.

Aggressive-bear reports have also been on the rise, an NJ Advance Media analysis found in December.

Critics continue to contend the hunt is about trophies - and not management policies.

"First they said we needed a hunt it was to protect public safety and to get rid of aggressive bears. After five years of a hunt just the opposite has happened," said Jeff Tittel, director of the Sierra Club's New Jersey chapter. "We have had seen aggressive bear incidents go up... and this year is the first time in New Jersey history a person had died from a bear attack."

Barbara Sachau, of Whitehouse Station, called the council "sick" for its unanimous vote of the hunting policy.

"You're constantly trying to enlarge the number of hunters," said Sachau. "Animal species can be managed by other means."

The new bear management plan also includes provisions for education and garbage enforcement, officials added.

Seth Augenstein can be reached at saugenstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SethAugenstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.