State sues over habitat designation

The State of Alaska filed suit March 9 against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its designation of 187,157 square miles of critical habitat for the polar bear.

The Alaska Oil and Gas Association had filed suit March 1 over the designation and a coalition of Alaska Native groups have given the required 60-day notice that they intend to sue over the recovery plan for polar bears.

The state gave notice of its intent to file suit on Dec. 21; it is challenging the decision to list the bears as threatened in a separate suit.

“We already have a comprehensive slate of state laws, the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act and international agreements that provide strong conservation measures for polar bears,” Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said in a statement. “The additional regulations, consultations, and likely litigation that would be triggered by this habitat designation would simply delay jobs,

The state contends in its lawsuit that the Fish and Wildlife Service disregarded federal law by including geographical areas in the designation in which there is little or no evidence of physical or biological features essential to conservation of polar bears. An example, the state said, is the inclusion of Norton Sound as critical sea habitat even though mapping does not show the area even within the range of polar bears.

The state is also concerned with the apparent motive to designate the entire geographical area that could be occupied by the polar bear, rather than only those areas critical to its survival.

Polar bears were declared a threatened species by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2008 due to diminishing sea ice.

—Petroleum News