The Fund for Animals and Others Sue to Give Florida Black Bears Their Day in the Sun

	Defenders of Wildlife

Few people dispute these facts: The total number of Florida black bears remains a tiny fraction of the animal's historical population of 12,000; the bear, a subspecies of the American black bear, has been extirpated from more than 70% of its former range in Florida alone; more than 800 Florida black bears have been killed by vehicles on the state's roads since 1976; and the Sunshine State loses more wild habitat to urban development and roads every year.

When all the tragic trends and statistics are accounted for, the Florida black bear seems a poor player on this swampy stage, which may explain why the subspecies' current population is estimated to be about 1,200 individuals. And, yet, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), all's well for the Florida black bear. The agency, the very one charged with protecting imperiled species, refused in January 2004 to list the the Florida black bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which would help protect bears from habitat loss and even more sinister threats, such as future state-sponsored trophy hunts.

The battle to list the Florida black bear has been ongoing for more than 15 years now; the USFWS's decision in 2004 was supposed to be the last word on the subject—at least the agency hoped so. Today, however, The Fund for Animals, an affiliate of The HSUS, together with Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, and several Florida citizens, filed suit against the USFWS and the U.S. Department of Interior, challenging the agencies' refusal to list the imperiled Florida Black Bear as endangered or threatened.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service's decision is nothing less than a death sentence for several critically endangered populations of black bears in Florida," said Jonathan R. Lovvorn, vice president of Animal Protection Litigation for The HSUS, which combined operations with The Fund for Animals in 2005. "Rather than stand by and let this happen, the agency should be doing everything in its power to protect these populations from habitat loss, poaching, and the specter of future sport hunting."

The Bear Facts

The Florida black bear, one of the Sunshine State's most iconic wild animals, is a subspecies of the American black bear, a wider-ranging species found throughout North America. The Florida black bear historically ranged throughout the state of Florida and into the coastal areas of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and western Louisiana. Habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting, poaching, collisions with vehicles, and other conflicts have helped extirpate the subspecies from more than 70% of its former range in Florida alone, reducing the black bears to nine remnant populations with a total population estimated at 1,200 individuals. 

The primary threat to the black bear's existence in Florida continues to be habitat loss caused by human development; according to the Defenders of Wildlife, more than 20 acres of wildlife habitat are lost to development every hour in Florida. What's more, Florida's road system has expanded at a rate of 4.5 miles per day for the past 50 years, according to Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) figures. By the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's own 2001 statistics, those roads have led to the deaths of 880 bears since 1976. Then there's the hunting community: The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance not only plans to fight our lawsuit against the USFWS, but also has, according to its web site, "been in discussions with sportsmen and the state of Florida to delist the black bear from the state's threatened species list. This would open the door to a hunting season."

Despite all these threats, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services seems to think that the Florida black bear can live a carefree existence on four "secure," publicly owned habitats: the Ocala National Forest, the Apalachicola National Forest, the Osceola National Forest's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, and the Big Cypress National Preserve. Unfortunately, these four population islands are not enough to assure the long-term protection and survival of the Florida black bear. In fact, both the USFWS and conservation biologists agree that the species requires at least ten secure populations, with more than 200 bears per population, to survive into the future.

Even those seemingly secure lands that the USFWS likes to tout for Florida black bears may not be development-proof. A St. Petersburg Times series showed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had "issued more than 12,000 permits to destroy Florida wetlands between 1999 and 2003, and denied only one." The Times found that "84,000 acres of wetlands have disappeared despite a federal policy requiring no net loss."

How We Got Here

More than 15 years ago, in response to population declines and escalating threats to the Florida black bear's existence, citizens petitioned the USFWS to list the animal as a threatened species under the ESA. On October 18, 1990, the agency responded by publishing a 90-day finding that noted, "[S]ubstantial information has been presented to indicate that the petitioned action may be warranted."

In 1998, after years of delay, the USFWS published a new, 12-month finding, which concluded that a listing was not warranted after all. The Florida black bear was then promptly removed as a candidate for ESA listing. The agency's refusal was perplexing: It denied listing the bear, even though the agency acknowledged that much of the animal's historical habitat had been lost and that many of the few remaining bear populations continued to be threatened by road construction, residential and industrial development, timber cutting, and other forms of habitat loss and fragmentation. 

The USFWS's 1998 decision was successfully challenged in court by The Fund for Animals, Defenders of Wildlife, and other conservation organizations. In December 2001, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia set aside the USFWS's 1998 decision and ordered the agency to reconsider whether the Florida black bear warranted listing under the ESA. The court found that the USFWS inadequately relied on speculative and future "regulatory mechanisms"—those state and federal laws, regulations, and programs that would protect bears regardless of ESA listing—and explicitly directed the agency to reconsider its decision based upon current regulatory mechanisms. 

On January 14, 2004, the USFWS released a new finding that stated that existing regulatory mechanisms were still adequate, and the agency once again refused to list the Florida black bear. When making its decision, however, the USFWS limited its analysis to regulatory mechanisms existing in 1998, rather than expanding its inquiry to look at the regulatory mechanisms existing in 2004, as required by the court. 

Left with no recourse to protect the bears, The Fund for Animals and others have filed suit against the USFWS, again demanding that the agency follow the law and act according to the 2001 court order. "The service needs to be held accountable not only for its inability to follow court orders, but also for continuing to endanger an animal that has been under seige for decades," says The HSUS's Lovvorn. "The time is now to give Florida black bears their day in the Sunshine State."  

What You Can Do

Write to Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, and USFWS Director, H. Dale Hall, and urge them to stop dodging the listing provisions of the Endangered Species Act. Ask them to take the necessary steps to ensure that the few remaining Florida black bears receive legal protection from extinction.

Write to:

Gale Norton
Secretary
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240

H. Dale Hall
Director
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1849 C St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240

Related Links

Habitat Loss and Fragmentation

Black Bears