Yahoo News 23 Oct 09;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Thursday announced plans to designate more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska as critical habitat for polar bears, a key step towards increasing protection for the threatened species.
"Proposing critical habitat for this iconic species is one step in the right direction to help this species stave off extinction, recognizing that the greatest threat to the polar bear is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change," Interior Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland said in a statement announcing the move.
The habitat would cover 200,541 square miles (519,399 square kilometeters) and include barrier islands along Alaska?s coast, sea ice habitat, land and rivers near the coast where the bears make their dens.
The United States listed the polar bear as a threatened species in May last year, saying climate change has caused a drastic loss of Arctic sea-ice, which is essential for the survival of the bears.
But although the Endangered Species Act calls for a critical habitat to be designated at the same time as a species is declared threatened, wildlife officials under the previous administration of president George W. Bush held off on naming the habitat area.
The Bush administration also pushed forward with the sale of offshore exploration leases in parts of Alaska where polar bears dwell, insisting that developing oil activities in Alaska would not harm the bears.
By contrast, Strickland said the administration of President Barack Obama "is fully committed to the protection and recovery of the polar bear."
But the designated critical habitat for the bears would include "areas where oil and gas exploration activities are known to occur," according to the Fish and Wildlife Services, the branch of the Department of the Interior in charge of nature conservancy.
Feds designates polar bear habitat in Alaska
Matthew Daly, Associated Press Yahoo News 23 Oct 09;
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Thursday it is designating more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska and off its coast as "critical habitat" for polar bears, an action that could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas.
Federal law prohibits agencies from taking actions that may adversely affect critical habitat and interfere with polar bear recovery.
Assistant Interior Secretary Tom Strickland called the habitat designation a step in the right direction to help polar bears stave off extinction, while recognizing that the greatest threat to the bear is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change.
"As we move forward with a comprehensive energy and climate strategy, we will continue to work to protect the polar bear and its fragile environment," Strickland said at a news conference.
The total area proposed for critical habitat designation would cover about 200,541 square miles — about half in the rugged Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast. About 93 percent of the area proposed for the polar bear is sea ice, with the remaining 7 percent made up of barrier islands or land-based dens of snow and ice.
Designation as critical habitat would not, in itself, bar oil or gas development, but would make consideration of the effect on polar bears and their habitat an explicit part of any government-approved activity.
Thursday's announcement starts a 60-day public comment period, with a final rule expected next year. Interior faces a June 30 deadline for critical habitat designation under terms of a settlement agreement between the government and three environmental groups.
The Bush administration last year declared polar bears "threatened," or likely to become endangered. The May 2008 order by then-Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne cited the bear's need for sea ice, the dramatic loss of such ice in recent decades and computer models that suggest sea ice is likely to recede further in the future.
Environmental groups hailed the habitat announcement, but noted that it came in the same week that the Interior Department approved a plan by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell to drill exploratory wells on two leases in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's north coast. The proposed drilling sites are within the area proposed for critical habitat designation.
"If polar bears are to survive in a rapidly melting Arctic, we need to protect their critical habitat, not turn it into a polluted industrial zone," said Brendan Cummings, a lawyer with the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, which filed a lawsuit in the polar bear case.
Cummings called the Interior Department "schizophrenic" — on the one hand declaring its intent to protect polar bear habitat in the Arctic, yet at the same time "sacrificing that habitat to feed our unsustainable addiction to oil."
The announcement comes one day after the state of Alaska filed a new complaint in its effort to overturn the listing of the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Former Gov. Sarah Palin filed suit last year, saying that Interior did not respond to the state's concerns in a timely manner before listing the polar bears as threatened. State officials say the listing could cripple offshore oil and gas development in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, which provide prime habitat for the polar bears.
Gov. Sean Parnell, who succeeded Palin upon her resignation last summer, said the Endangered Species Act was being used as a way to shut down resource development along Alaska's northern coast. Parnell said he does not intend to let that happen.
Environmental groups monitoring the Arctic have long complained that federal regulators routinely grant permits for petroleum exploration without adequately considering consequences for whales, polar bears, walrus and other marine mammals. They say boats, drilling platforms and aircraft will add to bears' stress by causing them to flee and expend more energy.
Conservation groups also say oil companies have not demonstrated they can clean up an oil spill in broken ice. Cleanup off Alaska's coast could be slowed by extreme cold, moving ice, high wind and low visibility.
Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council said designation of critical habitat is a powerful tool to protect threatened species, but said more must be done to save the polar bear from extinction.
___
On the Net:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov/
U.S. maps protected Alaska habitat for polar bears
Yereth Rosen, Reuters 22 Oct 09;
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A vast swath of icy sea, barrier islands and coastal land on Alaska's oil-rich North Slope will be granted special protection because of its importance to the threatened polar bear, under a proposal released Thursday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The agency proposes that 200,000 square miles (518,000 sq km) of coastline and shallow Arctic Ocean waters be designated as critical habitat, a status of heightened protection afforded under the Endangered Species Act.
The area, which would be the largest ever designated for an Endangered Species Act-listed population, overlaps the territory with the largest existing oil fields in the United States where companies operate and plan to explore more.
Tom Strickland, assistant Interior Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said in a telephone news conference that the critical-habitat designation should not hinder further development as long as operations are responsible and careful.
Oil companies are already subject to rules for protecting polar bears imposed by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and under other aspects of the Endangered Species Act.
"The activities going on in the energy community, both onshore and offshore, were already subject to significant regulatory review and consideration as they might affect the bear prior to this step that we're taking today," Strickland said.
"We believe that it will not be a significant additional burden on the industry for that reason, but it does further highlight the importance of trying to minimize any kind of activity in these critical areas that might adversely impact the bear."
ENVIRONMENTALISTS PLEASED
Included in the designation are areas where polar bears establish their dens, give birth and nurse their cubs and forage for food, officials said. Over 90 percent of the habitat is water that is often covered by sea ice.
Environmentalists said they were pleased with the plan, which is subject to a 60-day public review before it becomes final.
"The maps all are what scientists say polar bear critical habitat in the U.S. should be," said Brendan Cummings, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups that sued to gain Endangered Species Act protections for polar bears.
But Cummings and other environmentalists said the Department of Interior must stop the spread of oil development in new Arctic territory to make the critical-habitat designation meaningful.
Alaska state officials, however, are fighting the listing itself and the regulations it entails.
"Some are attempting to use the Endangered Species Act as a way to shut down resource development. I'm not going to let that happen on my watch," Governor Sean Parnell told a news conference late Wednesday.
The state has sued to overturn the listing and filed a brief earlier this week in U.S. District Court in Washington that argues that polar bear populations are robust and unaffected by sea-ice changes, the Republican governor said.
(Editing by Mary Milliken)
