Energy

Environmentalists Want Louisiana Black Bears Listed As Endangered. Not Even The Obama Admin Agreed

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Environmental groups filed a lawsuit Thursday trying to reinstate federal protections lifted in 2016 on a population of Louisiana black bears, according to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) removed the Louisiana black bear off the Endangered Species List in 2016, announcing that the animal had recovered from the threat of extinction after two decades of federal protection.

“The Louisiana black bear symbolizes how the Endangered Species Act can be a remarkably effective tool to protect and recover threatened and endangered species when we work in close partnership with states and other stakeholders,” former-Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who served under former-President Barack Obama, said in a 2016 statement announcing the bear’s recovery.

The environmental coalition led by PEER is suing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and FWS acting director Greg Sheehan. The Louisiana black bear has lost 99 percent of its “historic population,” according to PEER.

“The Louisiana black bear is a victim of biological malpractice,” PEER Senior Counsel Paula Dinerstein said in a statement. “Delisting the Louisiana black bear was a premature claim of ‘Mission Accomplished.’”

The Louisiana black bear is a subspecies of the American black bear. When the subspecies was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1992, about 80 to 120 of the animals were living in parts of Louisiana, western Mississippi and eastern Texas. By the time the bear was delisted in 2016, its population had grown to around 500 to 750, Louisiana’s The Advocate reports.

The bears’ population was overestimated, but the population is unsustainable even at the estimated levels without federal protections, the PEER lawsuit claims.

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