Opinion: Arctic refuge is a safe haven for polar bears

As you enjoy the holidays, take a minute to think about our threatened polar bears.

Somewhere in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, pregnant polar bears are curled up inside their dens in snowdrifts. It’s amazing that during the darkest, coldest time of year, polar bears give birth to their warm-blooded young in an icy den.

At birth, the helpless one-pound cubs have no fur and their eyes are closed like a newborn puppy. They snuggle close to their mother for warmth and milk. Outside the den, death is certain in the frigid temperatures.

Polar bears are not faring well with climate change. Each year sea ice continues to thin, melt, and disappear. Polar bears must swim farther to find stable icebergs where they can rest, hunt for seals, or den. Since the late 1970s, the loss of sea ice has averaged 30,000 square miles per year, about the size of South Carolina, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Imagine if the floor of your home started to vanish, a few square feet each day. Soon you would have to look for a new home.

Polar bears are trending in that direction. Historically most polar bears of the Beaufort Sea population denned offshore. With the loss of sea ice habitat that ratio has reversed. More bears den on coastal lands now than at sea.

We know that denning female polar bears are sensitive to loud noises associated with industrial activity. Mothers can flee their dens and abandon the cubs if disturbed. A quiet environment on land is more important now than ever before.

Polar bears are having a tougher time finding food, and the birth weight of cubs has dropped over the past three decades. Seals are more difficult to access so the coastal bears survive on whale remains left by Inupiat hunters. On land, they aren’t fast enough to catch a caribou. They are marine mammals with webbed toes to help them swim, and a thick, insulating layer of blubber for life on ice.

There are existing laws that should help protect polar bears and their denning habitat.

In 1973, circumpolar nations, including the U.S., signed a treaty in Oslo to protect the global population of polar bears. Under the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, hunting became more restrictive and protecting critical denning habitat a priority under Article 2.

In 2008 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or USFWS, added polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act because of the loss of sea ice habitat. During this same decade, the Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear population plummeted by 40%.

Charged with managing polar bears, the USFWS has determined that 80% of the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge is “critical denning habitat” for polar bears. This sensitive area is located smack dab in the middle of where a scheduled oil and gas lease sale will take place on Jan. 6.

Under the USFWS Administrative Procedures Act any proposed human activity in a wildlife refuge must meet a compatibility test— such activities must not violate the purposes of the respective refuge. Two of the purposes of the Arctic Refuge are to conserve fish and wildlife populations in their natural diversity and to fulfill international treaty obligations.

Given the polar bear treaty, ESA listing, and other laws, our nation should not allow exploring or drilling for oil on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. That’s the least we can do for our struggling polar bears.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, recently authorized the spending of up to $20 million to bid on leases on the Arctic Refuge coastal plain, even though AIDEA received many comments from Alaskans opposed to such an investment in our greatest wildlife refuge.

Instead of gambling $20 million on oil leases, AIDEA should give that money back to the state’s general fund to help support our struggling schools and other programs that benefit all Alaskans.

When you say Happy New Year to your friends, remember that polar bear cubs are arriving in their quiet snowy world for the very first time. They certainly don’t need the noisy pounding and thumping of a seismic operation or drilling rig to greet them, particularly in a wildlife refuge.

Debbie S. Miller is the author of many books about Alaska, including “Polar Bear Journey” and “Midnight Wilderness: Journeys in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

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