Protection Sought for Florida Black Bear

Washington, D.C. – A coalition of conservation and animal welfare organizations and individuals, including Defenders of Wildlife, The Humane Society of the United States, The Fund For Animals, and the Sierra Club, today notified Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ("FWS") that they will legally challenge FWS's most recent decision to deny protection to the Florida black bear under the Endangered Species Act ("Act"). The Florida black bear, a distinct subspecies of American black bear, historically occurred throughout Florida and into Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Today the Florida black bear has been reduced to approximately 3,000 animals in nine isolated populations, occupying only about one-quarter of its former range. If Secretary Norton and FWS do not take action to protect the Florida black bear within 60 days, then the conservationists can sue to compel such protection.

"The Florida black bear's home is being broken up into smaller and smaller pieces as we build our subdivisions, malls, roads and highways across their path," said Laurie Macdonald, director of Florida programs for Defenders of Wildlife. "The bears showing up in peoples' backyards are searching for food in all the wrong places because their places in the natural community are being eliminated. The federal government needs to shoulder and share responsibility now for saving the bear throughout its remaining range rather than rely on the few remaining strongholds. Ignoring the alarm call of accelerating sprawl of development, the rising cost of land and Florida's failure to stick to growth management plans denies the bear the legal protection it needs for the future."

Like much of the state's native wildlife, the primary threat to the Florida black bear is habitat destruction caused by urbanization and other human development. The bear also faces threats from rising levels of road-kills resulting from increasing highway construction and expansion, intensive recreation such as off-road vehicle use and road creation, and illegal hunting and poaching, and sport hunting in Alabama and Georgia With destruction of the black bear's forested habitat accelerating in Florida and throughout the Southeast in coming years, listing under the Endangered Species Act will provide the species with essential protection necessary to prevent further population losses.

Conservationists first sought federal protection for the Florida black bear in 1990. In 2001, this same coalition of conservation groups won a court order overturning a 1998 decision by FWS denying listing under the Act and ordering the agency to reconsider its decision. FWS' subsequent decision to again deny protection to the bear, made on Christmas Eve 2003, is the subject of this notice.

In its decision, FWS argues that other regulatory mechanisms and habitat protection put into place by the state of Florida, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Army Corps of Engineers are sufficient to prevent black bear population declines. Florida, however, has reduced the amount of money for state conservation lands acquisition while land costs have risen and adopted a state Endangered and Threatened Species Act that puts bears at risk of receiving diminished legal protection. Similarly, Forest Service wildlife protections have been greatly weakened under the Bush administration, and the St. Petersburg Times recently concluded an investigative series finding that the Army Corps of Engineers has issued 12,000 development permits in Florida during the years 1999-2003, while rejecting only one permit during the same time period. Many of these permits were within black bear habitat. 

"Once again, the Fish and Wildlife Service is relying on state agencies and local officials to protect these bears, even though entire populations of this subspecies are being extirpated on the State's watch," said Jonathan R. Lovvorn, Vice President of Animal Protection Litigation for The HSUS. "Without federal protection, bears in Florida will have no meaningful defense against a multitude of threats, including habitat loss, poaching, and even future trophy hunts."

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Defenders of Wildlife is a leading nonprofit conservation organization recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and wildlife habitat. With more than 480,000 members and supporters nationwide, Defenders is an effective leader on conservation issues. For timely information on these issues, visit www.defenders.org and subscribe to DENLines, a free e-mail alert newsletter.

The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization representing more than nine million members and constituents. The non-profit organization is a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in companion animals and equine protection, disaster preparedness and response, wildlife and habitat protection, animals in research and farm animal welfare. The HSUS protects all animals through education, investigation, litigation, legislation, advocacy, and field work. The group is based in Washington and has numerous field representatives across the country. On the web at www.hsus.org.