Tara Sweeney: Habitat designation threatens Alaska Native lives

Monday, January 24, 2011  

"The Department of Interior's recent critical habitat designation for polar bears should concern all Americans. The department's decision is flawed; it is a poor attempt to legislate climate change through regulation, a failure of national security policy and simply bad federal Indian policy.

Last week 11 Alaska Native groups and the North Slope Borough filed a 60-day intent to sue the Department of Interior over the designation of nearly 200,000 square miles as "critical habitat" for polar bears in Alaska. To put this into perspective, this designation is larger than the state of California, covers three Arctic seas and stretches up to 20 miles inland.

The department violated the Endangered Species Act when it ignored Alaska Natives' concerns and improperly designated this habitat for polar bears.

First, it failed to balance purported conservation benefits for polar bears against the economic effects of excluding Alaska Native lands from the designation. The "benefits" of including Native-owned lands are essentially nonexistent. The harm of including our lands could cripple our communities.

Second, the department failed to accurately assess the economic and other impacts of this designation. Its analysis grossly underestimated the impacts on Native villages and responsible economic development. Further, it failed to include key factors like litigation, project delay, deferred production, project closure and uncertainty. According to independent experts the costs could be in the tens of millions of dollars -- impacting jobs, tax revenues and community development projects in over 30 Alaskan villages that are in or near designated lands."

Get the Story:
Tara Sweeney: Habitat designation threatens rural life (The Anchorage Daily News 1/23)