District Court ends polar bear habitat appeal

The federal District Court in Alaska has brought to an end appeals against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s designation of critical habitat for the polar bear. Following a February decision by the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit overturning an earlier District Court decision upholding the appeals, and following the subsequent rejection by the 9th Circuit court of a request for an en banc rehearing, on Aug. 9 District Court Judge Ralph Beistline issued an order dismissing the appeal.

“Pursuant to the Feb. 29, 2016, decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit … judgment is entered in favor of the defendants,” Beistline wrote.

The order brings to an end three closely related appeals against the critical habitat designation. Organizations which had launched the appeals include the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, the American Petroleum Institute, Arctic Regional Corp., the state of Alaska and the Inupiat Community of the North Slope.

Fish and Wildlife issued the polar bear critical habitat designation in November 2010, following a 2009 listing as threatened, under the terms of the Endangered Species Act. The habitat designation covered a total area of 187,157 square miles, including a vast offshore area; barrier islands and spits; and polar bear denning habitat along Alaska’s northern coast. People challenging the designation have been worried about the potential impact of the designation on economic activity and have questioned the massive scale of the habitat area.

In a 2013 District Court decision Judge Beistline had rejected the habitat designation, ruling that the on-land and barrier island components of the designation had been too broad and had lacked evidence of the actual locations of habitat features. But the 9th Circuit Court overruled this view, saying that the Endangered Species Act envisages the designation of areas containing critical habitat components, but that it makes little sense to limit the designation just to habitat that the protected animals currently use.

- ALAN BAILEY