Black bear habitat mused

• By RICHARD BURGESS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: May 7, 2008 - Page: 1BA - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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LAFAYETTE — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday proposed 1.3 million acres as “critical habitat” for the Louisiana black bear — a designation that could add protections for the threatened species.

The proposed habitat area, which is subject to public comment over the next two months, stretches from the northeast corner of Louisiana down to the lower Atchafalaya Basin and runs through 15 parishes.

The often misunderstood critical habitat designation will not turn that area into a refuge, but it will bring more scrutiny to activities involving federal land, federal permits or federal money.

“You could hunt, fish or do whatever,” said Fish and Wildlife Service biologist David Soileau.

He said the designation as proposed also exempts normal timber management activities and would not apply to existing agricultural activity.

The Louisiana black bear already receives protections under the Endangered Species Act, but a critical habitat designation could expand the geographical area in which projects with a federal link are reviewed.

Opinions are mixed on what effect the designation will have on efforts to conserve the bear.

Critics include the Black Bear Conservation Committee, a coalition of landowners and government agencies that argues the designation is meaningless because most of the land in the proposed area is private, making a federal connection less likely.

Supporters of the move — some of whom hope the designation could help preserve the Atchafalaya Basin along with the bear — argue that new protections could make logging and oil and gas activity more difficult.

A critical habitat designation is generally required for all threatened species, and critical habitat was proposed soon after the black bear was listed as threatened in 1992.

Landowners and some state officials objected to the designation, and the critical habitat process was stalled until Lafayette resident Harold Schoeffler and a group of crawfishermen filed a federal lawsuit to force the issue.

Schoeffler, chairman of the Acadiana chapter of the Sierra Club, had also worked in the 1990s to force the federal government to list the black bear as a threatened species

A judge ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service last year to revive the designation process, setting an April deadline for proposing the critical habitat area and a February 2009 deadline for final adoption of the designation.