Florida black bear is denied endangered species status by U.S.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cbear15jan15,0,1477814.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla

By David Fleshler
Staff Writer
Posted January 15 2004

The Florida black bear was again rejected for a place on the federal endangered
species list Wednesday after wildlife officials concluded the bear’s core
habitat is secure and sufficient legal protection exists to keep its population
stable.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said 1,600 to 3,000 Florida black bears
prowl the forests and swamps of Florida, southern Georgia and southern Alabama.
This population represents an increase over the past 50 years or so, and the
wildlife service said the vast majority of Florida bears live in areas that are
protected by the state or federal government.

“When you put the Florida bear in perspective with other listed species like
the grizzly bear or the Louisiana black bear, we just have a lot more bears and
a lot more habitat,” said John Kasbohm, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service. “Are there good things that could be done for the Florida
bear? Sure, absolutely. But do they meet the criteria for listing under the
Endangered Species Act? I don’t think so.”

But Defenders of Wildlife, a Washington, D.C., group that had filed suit to
force the federal government to protect the bear, said the government was
ignoring continued threats. Urban development in greater Orlando, Naples-Fort
Myers and other areas has encroached on bear habitat. And several of the bear
populations are small and isolated, putting them in danger of disappearing,
said Mike Senatore, litigation director for Defenders of Wildlife. He said the
group would consider going back to court.

“We’re extremely disappointed,” he said. “The continued loss of habitat in and
of itself is enough to warrant listing.”

Bear habitat in South Florida begins about 40 miles west of the suburbs of
Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

An endangered species listing would give the government a powerful tool to
restrict housing developments, roads and other construction in bear habitat.
And it could have forced the U.S. Forest Service to take more steps to protect
the bears in Florida’s three national forests, for example, by restricting
off-road vehicles, Senatore said.

The Florida black bear is one of three subspecies of the American black bear.
The Florida bears are smaller, have flatter heads and don’t really hibernate.
They once ranged from the Upper Keys through southern Georgia, southern Alabama
and southeastern Mississippi. At one time, an estimated 11,500 bears lived in
the four states.

Logging, urban development and unregulated hunting decimated bear populations,
according to a report by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
By the middle of the last century, just a few hundred remained. But bear
populations rebounded. The state banned hunting. Logging ceased in several
areas, allowing secondary-growth forests to regenerate bear habitat.

But environmentalists say the state’s soaring human population has hurt the
bears. Roadkills skyrocketed, with 132 bears killed by vehicles in 2002. The
largest number of roadkills took place on heavily traveled State Road 40
through Ocala National Forest.

Since the early 1990s, environmentalists have petitioned and sued the federal
government to list the bear as “threatened.” The Fund for Animals and Defenders
of Wildlife filed suit, and in 2001 a federal judge in Washington ordered the
service to make sure that the bear didn’t warrant listing under one of the
criteria for adding a species to the endangered species list: whether
insufficient mechanisms are in place to protect it.

On Wednesday, the service announced its conclusion that there were sufficient
rules and regulatory structures to protect the bear. For example, the service
said the Army Corps of Engineers is required to evaluate whether any
destruction of wetlands would harm wildlife, such as Florida bears. And it said
the state has very active programs to acquire and protect wilderness.

The service said more than 374,000 acres of bear habitat in Florida was
purchased and protected by the state and federal governments since the early
1990s. While urban development is eroding the fringes of bear habitat, most
Florida bears live in five areas that are secure from development: Apalachicola
National Forest, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Osceola National Forest,
Ocala National Forest, and Big Cypress National Preserve.

“We’re certainly losing habitat in certain areas in private lands,” said
Kasbohm, of the Fish and Wildlife Service. “I think that’s clear. But I think
the question is whether the core habitat is protected, and we know that big
pieces of it are.”

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