Alaska Wildlife Alliance video to celebrate recent Kenai Refuge protections!
This week, we celebrate two big wins for wildlife in southcentral Alaska. Both the US Supreme Court and the Fish and Wildlife Service upheld protections for Kenai brown bears and other wildlife on the ~2 million acre Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Alaska Wildlife Alliance has been advocating for these protections - through the courts, during public comment periods and at town hall meetings - since 2016. We are so grateful to the 145,000+ people who heard our call and commented in support of these protections. This victory was made possible by your actions, compassion and concern for the Refuge, as well as the tireless efforts of our staff and partners. Thank you!
Together, we prevented brown bear baiting on the Refuge
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the State of Alaska and Safari Club International’s attempt to overturn a federal ban on brown bear baiting in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the appeal, made jointly by the state and by Safari Club International, upholds a baiting-ban put in place in 2016 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which was later affirmed by a U.S. District Court judge in 2020 as well as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022.
Alaska Wildlife Alliance and our partners, represented by the law firm Trustees for Alaska, intervened in the above-listed lawsuits to support the Fish and Wildlife Service’s ban on brown bear baiting.
After seven long years of appeals, lawsuits and filings, we celebrate the US Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case, leaving protections for Kenai brown bears in place!
How did we get here?
Baiting of brown bears has never been allowed in the refuge since its formal creation in 1980, but the Alaska Board of Game has repeatedly tried to change that.
Brown bear at bait station on the Kenai Peninsula
In 2013, the State Board of Game passed a rule allowing brown bear baiting in the Refuge. The Fish and Wildlife Service responded in 2016 with its own rule formalizing a ban on brown bear baiting within the Refuge. The rule passed with overwhelming scientific and public support, citing the genetic isolation of these brown bears and safety concerns about bait stations near recreational areas.
The state and Safari Club then sued to overturn the Fish and Wildlife Service rule, while Alaska Wildlife Alliance and our allies intervened in that lawsuit to defend the rule. While that lawsuit was working it’s way through the courts, Donald Trump was elected.
In 2020, the Trump administration proposed a new rule which sought to allow brown bear baiting, liberalize trapping, remove conservation measures for furbearers, and allow firearm discharge in high-use recreation areas on the Refuge. Alaska Wildlife Alliance and our partners mobilized a campaign across Alaska and the country to defend the Refuge, and you showed up. Of the almost 50,000 comments submitted on the proposed rule, all but 123 opposed all or part of the proposed changes. In addition, the Refuge received over 95,000 campaign letters in the form of attachments to letter submissions from various organizations and groups that opposed the proposed rule. Thanks to you, over 145,000 people spoke up to defend wildlife on the Kenai Refuge, flooding the public record with 99.99% of comments opposing the proposed rule.
A few months after the public comment period for the proposed closed and the Fish and Wildlife Service began deliberating whether or not to pass the Trump-era rule, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled on the original 2016 lawsuit. Judge Gleason ruled in favor of the Refuge’s original bear-baiting ban, upholding the Refuge’s protections for these bears. We celebrated!
The State of Alaska and Safari Club then appealed that decision, but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Gleason’s ruling in 2022. We celebrated again!
Then, the State and Safari Club tried to appeal that decision to the US Supreme Court this January. To our relief and celebration, the Supreme Court ruled this week that they will not hear the case. The Ninth Circuit decision stands and the case is settled in favor of wildlife, Alaska Wildlife Alliance, the Refuge, and our partners.
What’s more? This week the Fish and Wildlife Service also officially rescinded the proposed 2020 rule we worked so hard to defeat!
The Service said it considered “new information on recent annual levels of human-caused brown bear mortalities on the Kenai Peninsula, and additional scientific literature” in its decision about brown bear baiting.
“Allowing the harvest of brown bears over bait on the Refuge has a high potential to result in adverse impacts to the Refuge’s brown bear population, and that a cautious approach to management of Kenai Peninsula brown bears remains scientifically warranted,” the service said in its decision.
“This week was a big week in terms of the movement on these protections,” said Nicole Schmitt, executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance. She said the decisions show the federal government does have authority to manage wildlife on refuge lands, including for the purpose of maintaining natural diversity.
“The second big point is that through the decision to rescind the 2020 rule, I think the refuge really listened to and took a hard look at what those changes would really mean on the ground,” she said. - From Sabine Poux’s article, ‘Federal government tosses proposed Kenai refuge rule, upholding restrictions on hunting and trapping’
On behalf of Alaska Wildlife Alliance staff and Board, we send our sincere gratitude to the members who make this work possible. We also thank the legal team at Trustees for Alaska and our partners who served as co-plaintiffs: Alaskans for Wildlife, Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges, Denali Citizens Council, Copper Country Alliance, Kachemak Bay Conservation Society, Defenders of Wildlife, National Parks Conservation Association, National Wildlife Refuge Association, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, The Wilderness Society, Wilderness Watch, Alaska Chapter of the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Humane Society of the United States.
After years of working to protect wildlife on the Refuge, we are excited to celebrate this victory with you!
