Endangered Species Law & Policy

On January 10, 2013, the United States District Court for the District of Alaska issued an order (pdf) vacating the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's critical habitat designation for the polar bear after concluding that the Service failed to comply with substantive and procedural requirements in the Endangered Species Act.  Specifically, the district court found that the administrative record produced by the Service failed to contain evidence of the essential "physical or biological features" necessary to justify the designation of two large areas as critical habitat, and the Service failed to provide an adequate response to comments submitted by the State of Alaska.  With respect to one of the areas designated by the Service, the district court explained that "the Service cannot designate a large swath of land in northern Alaska as 'critical habitat' based entirely on one essential feature that is located in approximately one percent of the entire area set aside."