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Does a US District Court ruling made yesterday give some hope of a reprieve to US polar bear hunters who sucked it up and went hunting this winter despite the ongoing ambiguity about trophy imports? Conservation Force's John J. Jackson, III, thinks it does. He says it could allow US hunters who took bears through April 28 to import them into the US, no matter what action the US Fish & Wildlife Service takes later this week on the listing of the bears as threatened. But that is not the way Mike Carpenter of the US Fish & Wildlife Service Permit Office reads the ruling. Reached this morning by phone, Carpenter says the new ruling does not change the previous order making all polar bear imports illegal the same day the bear is listed as threatened. That includes already permitted animals already in transit. If they aren't in the US by Thursday and the polar bear is listed as threatened that day, they will not be allowed in, he told The Hunting Report. End of story.

Here at The Hunting Report, we are not in a position today to resolve this conflict or suggest a clear course of action. If you are among the hunters affected by this ambiguous ruling, our best advice is to stay in touch with Jackson at: 504-837-1233. We will issue an update on the matter as soon as more is known.

For the record, Jackson says he is not going to take Carpenter's view of the ruling as final. He says he intends to ask the trail court to stay its original order and also an appellate court to stay it if the trial court doesn't. He went on to say this morning that he intends to fight at all levels for the right to import bears taken up until the day they are listed, adding quickly that he does not concede victory at this point to those who want to list the bear. Jackson feels there is still a chance the bear won't be listed.


The ambiguous ruling yesterday comes as the hunting community is waiting anxiously for a final decision on the listing of the bear as threatened. The decision has to be made by Thursday, May 15, two days from now. A lot is at stake with the listing, as a yes decision will not only put an end to the import of polar bear trophies into the US, but it will make the Endangered Species Act an enormously powerful agent of change, perhaps making it permanently impossible to explore for oil in huge parts of Alaska and opening up avenues of litigation against oil companies, utilities, automobile manufacturers and others. These consequences are possible because the basis of the proposed listing is global warming. Proponents argue the release of CO2 is causing the polar ice cap to melt, and the way the Endangered Species Act is written, the government will be mandated to take corrective steps. It is anyone's guess how radical those steps could be. For sure, they could change life as we know it in the United States. Stay tuned. - Don Causey, President/Publisher.