Federal officials delay 'challenging' decision on polar bear listing

ANCHORAGE - Federal officials said Monday that they will need a few more weeks to decide whether polar bears need protection under the Endangered Species Act because of global warming.

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The deadline was Wednesday, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it now hopes to provide a recommendation to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in time for a decision by him within the next month.

The department has never declared a species threatened or endangered because of climate change, said Dale Hall, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"That's why this one has been so taxing and challenging to us," he said.

Environmentalists who have fought for polar bears to be listed as a threatened species said that when the agency officially misses its Wednesday deadline, they will announce they intend to sue the government to urge a speedy decision.

"What they're doing is illegal," said Kassie Siegel, climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "And it's also part of a pattern we have experienced over and over and over again: political interference from Bush appointees from Washington, D.C."

Critics of the president's environmental record said they think that the Fish and Wildlife Service is taking too long to send its recommendation to Kempthorne.

"The Bush administration has failed to do what is necessary and once again they must be taken to court before they will act," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. "I call on the president to stop dragging his feet and live up to his responsibility to protect the polar bear and the rest of God's creation for our children and grandchildren."

Studies issued in September by the U.S. Geological Survey found that in the next 50 years, shrinking polar sea ice would leave a small population of the world's polar bears in the islands of the Canadian Arctic.

Government scientists predicted in the studies that two-thirds of the world's polar bears, including those along the coasts of Alaska and Russia, would be likely to disappear. USGS scientists also said that regional efforts to protect polar bears - such as restricting oil and gas development or subsistence hunting - would not be enough to prevent their decline. One-fifth of the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the world live on the coast of Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is currently reviewing eight endangered species decisions it says may have been unduly influenced by a former deputy assistant secretary within the Interior Department, Julie MacDonald.

An investigation by the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General found that MacDonald may have had a potential conflict of interest when she oversaw endangered species decisions that could have had an effect on her own property in California.

Siegal said she is heartened by what she deems as undeniable scientific evidence in the USGS studies. But she fears it may not be enough.

"What worries us is the track record of this administration," Siegal said.

Environmentalists say they also are concerned that delays on the part of the Fish and Wildlife are tied to oil and gas leases in polar bear habitat being offered by another Interior Department agency, the Minerals Management Service. The agency is scheduled to hold an oil and gas lease sale in the Chukchi Sea on Feb. 6. Environmentalists already oppose the leases, but say that the agency should at least wait until Kempthorne decides whether to list polar bears as threatened.

"The bear is totally dependent on the ice pack to survive," said Chuck Clusen, with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "That's how they feed. You certainly could have a situation where the bear could be impacted, at least to some degree, maybe greatly. We should not be leasing until we can show that it won't harm the bear."

A spokesman for the Minerals Management Service said that all leases will include requirements that protect biological resources. An endangered species listing for the polar bear wouldn't stall the leases, said spokesman Gary Strasburg. But the companies with the leases would have to comply with all environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act.

"It doesn't necessarily mean that we would not be able to continue our sale, it could mean we would take additional issues into account as we continue the sale process," he said.