Polar Bears vs. Development in Alaska

By Stefan Milkowski – The New York Times

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell vowed last week to keep fighting the 2008 listing of the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, even as federal managers proposed designating more than 200,000 square miles of land and ice as critical habitat for the bears.

At a press conference Wednesday in Anchorage, Mr. Parnell, who took office in July, touted Alaska’s record balancing wildlife protection with resource development, and he charged that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had acted illegally by listing the polar bear as threatened based on future climate and population predictions.

The state filed new legal briefs in federal court as part of an ongoing lawsuit seeking to overturn the listing. Mr. Parnell also promised to work more closely with federal managers on wildlife conservation and to fight attempts to list the ribbon seal under the E.S.A.

“Currently some are attempting to improperly use the Endangered Species Act to shut down resource development, and I’m not going to let this happen on my watch,” Mr. Parnell said.

Mr. Parnell is the third in a line of Republican governors in Alaska – following Sarah Palin and Frank Murkowski – to oppose federal protections for polar bears.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service State officials in Alaska are waging a pitched battle against the federal government’s listing of the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

While listings are meant to be blind to economic impacts, the threat of slowed resource development has motivated state officials. Most of Alaska’s unrestricted revenue comes from taxes and royalties on North Slope oil production.

Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan warned that the listing, based largely on expected declines in populations, would set a dangerous precedent that could turn Alaska into “the world’s largest zoo” without actually helping wildlife.

The global population of polar bears is now estimated at 20,000 to 25,000. According to the Polar Bear Specialist Group, a team of researchers and managers from five circumpolar nations, just one of the 19 subpopulations of bears is currently increasing, while eight are declining. Another three are stable, and there is insufficient data to assess the remaining seven.

The impact of the listing on resource development in Alaska remains unclear.

Fish and Wildlife officials stress that the protections aren’t meant to block resource development, but simply to ensure it’s done in a way that doesn’t threaten the species or its habitat.

But Rebecca Noblin, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned to have the bear listed, argues the listing should block resource development.

“Climate change is absolutely the biggest threat to polar bears,” she said. “Since they’re already in this weakened state, we need to do everything we can to eliminate other stressors.”

Ms. Noblin added that the federal government should also start curbing greenhouse gases immediately.

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