Last fall, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association West, Healthy Gulf, Sierra Club and its Delta Chapter, with three individual plaintiffs, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2016 decision to remove the Louisiana black bear from the U.S. List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife under the Endangered Species Act. The Plaintiffs challenge the Service’s delisting decision and finding that the bear has recovered, despite continued threats such as habitat loss and unnatural hybridization with non-native bears.
Meanwhile, Safari Club International – an international organization advocating for the right to hunt – seeks to intervene in the case to support the Service’s decision to delist the Louisiana black bear. Plaintiffs’ have opposed Safari Club’s intervention, raising concerns that potential future hunts are not at issue in this case addressing whether the agency’s delisting decision is supported by law and the best scientific data available. Plaintiffs include individuals and organization members that are themselves avid hunters. Jody Meche, president of LCPA-West, a plaintiff organization in the case, stated: “Most of our members have been hunting and fishing in the Atchafalaya Basin since they were young; it’s part of our culture and our connection to the Basin.”
There has not been a legal hunt of black bears in Louisiana for many decades, and even since the 2016 delisting, a hunting season has not yet been opened for bears in Louisiana. Plaintiff Dr. Ron Nowak said: “The bear was listed in 1992, partly due to greatly reduced numbers from overhunting. Listing helped it come back some, but numbers are nowhere near those in states that allow hunting of black bears. Regardless, this case is not about hunting but about an agency ignoring both law and science to deceive the public for political proclivity."
Plaintiff Dr. Michael Caire said: “Louisiana’s sportsmen (not a gender specific word) have been at the forefront of protecting and enhancing our State’s and Nation’s wildlife resources even prior to Theodore Roosevelt becoming President. The issue is Federal mismanagement (intentional or otherwise) that threatens the integrity of the Endangered Species Act.”
Dean Wilson, executive director for Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, a plaintiff organization, said: “I find it morally repugnant that groups like Safari Club put pressure on our government to hunt species with so few individuals left. Safari Club’s interests are not compatible with the reality that still faces the bear in Louisiana today, where as few as 500 individuals may remain and face threats to their survival. I believe in ethical and sustainable hunting, and I hope that this case will result in adequate protection and management of the bear to allow its population numbers to grow to support possible hunting in the future. But we’re not there yet.”
Motion to Intervene of Safari Club International
Memorandum in support of Safari Clun International’s Motion to Intervene
