WildEarth Guardians

Thursday, March 12, 2009
Feds Designate Critical Habitat for Louisiana Black Bear After a 17-Year Wait

Polar Bear's Southern Cousin Also Threatened by Rising Ocean Waters
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

WASHINGTON D.C.-After two lawsuits to force action, and 17 years of illegal delay, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) finally designated critical habitat for the Louisiana Black Bear on Monday. Approximately 1.2 million acres, all in Louisiana, are now protected from thoughtless destruction by federally funded or permitted activities. Back in 1993 the Service originally proposed protecting more than twice as much habitat, approximately 3 million acres.

“While we are happy the Service has finally done something, its proposal is a decade late, and a couple million acres short of what is needed to protect this southern bear from the climate crisis,” stated Jay Tutchton of WildEarth Guardians. “As the world’s ice melts and oceans rise, the Louisiana Black Bear’s habitat slips beneath the sea, just like its northern cousin the Polar Bear,” continued Tutchton.

Global warming is a central threat to both bears. Once, the Louisiana Black Bear ranged throughout southern Mississippi, all of Louisiana, and eastern Texas. Today its range is greatly reduced, and its population is estimated at between 400 to 700 animals, divided between breeding populations in two Louisiana river basins: the Tensas River Basin in Franklin, Madison, and Tensas Parishes; and the Atchafalaya River Basin, principally in lower Iberia and St. Mary’s Parishes.

Current projections from global warming models indicate that the bear, and all Louisianans, will lose lower Iberia and St. Mary’s Parishes to the sea. The Service acknowledges that this southern-most bear population is threatened by rising ocean waters. To address this threat, the Service has designated as critical habitat corridors for bears to migrate northward away from the rising sea, and “islands” of higher ground, like the 152-foot summit of Avery Island, home of Tabasco sauce. However, the Service’s rule falls far short of protecting enough higher elevation habitat for the bear to recover.

“It turns out the Louisiana Black Bear is threatened by the same things that threaten us - the loss of much of Louisiana to the sea,” stated Tutchton. “If we don’t make progress on global warming soon, we are not just going to have to worry about finding new bear habitat, but where we are going to get our next bottle of Tabasco sauce,” Tutchton continued.

Background:

The Service originally proposed critical habitat for the bear in 1993, but never finalized that proposal. Mr. Harold Schoeffler and the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association West took the Service to federal court in 2005. In 2007, a federal Judge in Louisiana ordered the Service to finalize critical habitat for the Bear. The Service issued a proposal in May 2008 that included 1.3 million acres, all in Louisiana. The final rule issued Monday shrunk slightly from the proposal.

The Louisiana Black Bear, Ursus americanus luteolus, is a unique subspecies of the American black bear. Though weight varies, male Louisiana Black Bears may weigh more than 600 pounds, making it the largest type of American black bear. The Bear often dens in hollow “old growth” cypress trees along sloughs, lakes, or bayous. Though Louisiana Black Bears are occasionally spotted outside of the Tensas and Atchafalaya river basins, it is unknown if these bears are simply wandering subadults and males or whether breeding populations exist outside the two Basins.

However, the Louisiana Black Bear is much more than the sum of its scientific description and range. It is a part of the history and culture of Louisiana, the South, and America. When William Faulkner described a bear as the “epitome and apotheosis of the old wild life” he spoke of the Louisiana Black Bear. When President Theodore Roosevelt once declined, famously, to shoot a bear that had been brought to bay by others, spawning a cartoon and the line of “Teddy Bears” that accompany children to bed, Roosevelt spared a Louisiana Black Bear. The importance of the Louisiana Black Bear to people of Louisiana, the South, and all American citizens can hardly be overstated. It is an animal above others in the pantheon of the creatures with which we share the earth. To lose it would be a tragedy of the first order. The wild swamps of Louisiana and the imaginations of our children would never be the same without the bear.