Representing Wildlife in the Courts
Wolves can’t attend law school, birds can’t file briefs, and bears are certainly not welcome in court. Yet, sometimes the only recourse we have to secure wildlife and habitat protections is through the courts.
Alaska Wildlife Alliance represents wildlife when regulations have failed them, and we often win. Help us give wildlife a voice in our judicial system and contribute to our Wildlife Defense Fund today!
Our current lawsuits
Stopping State-Sponsored Bear Kills in Western Alaska
We filed a lawsuit in Alaska Superior Court against the Alaska Board of Game and Alaska Department of Fish and Game for unlawfully adopting a bear control program on the Mulchatna caribou calving grounds in southwest Alaska.
The program resulted in the State killing of 99 bears (including 11 cubs) from helicopters and airplanes in less than a month, with no scientific justification or public input. The Alaska Wildlife Alliance seeks: a declaration that the Board of Game failed to meet its constitutional requirements for due process, a declaration that the Department of Fish and Game failed to provide the necessary information to properly institute bear control consistent with sustained yield, and requests an injunction to halt the bear control program until it complies with the law and the Constitution. Learn more here.
Alaska Wildlife Alliance v. Board of Game. Represented by Joel Bennett and Joseph Geldhof.
Protecting Alexander Archipelago Wolves
Alexander Archipelago wolves, found in the coastal rainforests of southeast Alaska, were decimated by over-trapping and habitat loss. We've taken legal action to protect them.
Most Alexander Archipelago wolves live on Prince of Wales Island, but their population has decreased by 60%. We’re suing the State to ensure that over-trapping never happens again. Learn more here.
Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Joel Bennett v. Vincent Lang and State of Alaska. Represented by Law Office of Joseph W. Geldhof
Our fight to keep drilling out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
We’re taking the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management to court for their illegal plan to open the entirety of the Coastal Plains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to foreign oil companies. Protection of the coastal plain is an Indigenous issue, an environmental issue, and a global issue, and voices from around the world have spoken up against this rush towards exploitation. Learn more here.
Gwich’in Steering Committee v. Bernhardt (Alaska Wildlife Alliance as co-plaintiff). Represented by Trustees for Alaska.
Protecting Alaska’s Threatened Polar Bears
There are less than 900 Southern Beaufort Sea Polar bears left in Alaska - if these bears could sit, they would fill less than 14 percent of the Sullivan Arena. A new regulation will allow oil companies to harass these threatened Polar bears in ways that delay or stop them from feeding, hunting, tending to their young, interacting with other bears, and generally surviving. For denning cubs, who are weak and need time in their dens with their mothers, this harassment can be fatal. We’re suing the Fish and Wildlife Service to stop this harassment so these bears, already stressed by climate change and habitat loss, can live in peace. Learn more here.
Alaska Wildlife Alliance v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Represented by Trustees for Alaska.
Stopping the Ambler Road
We’re suing the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Army Corps of Engineers for approving a 211-mile state-subsidized industrial gravel road (“the Ambler Road”) across the pristine southern Brooks Range. The Ambler Road would cut through federal public lands in the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve for the sole purpose of giving private mining companies access to undisturbed regions for hard rock mining. The road would expose critical watersheds to pollution, fragment caribou herd migrations, threaten critical bird habitat, and put stress on moose populations along the Koyukuk, Kobuk Wild, Alatna, and John Rivers. Learn more here.
Northern Alaska Environmental Center et al v. Bernhardt (Alaska Wildlife Alliance as co-plaintiff). Represented by Trustees for Alaska.
Our past lawsuits
Protecting the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge
The State of Alaska tried to force the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge to allow brown bear baiting on federally protected lands, and to open a recreation corridor to firearms. We intervened to make sure this wildlife refuge remains a refuge for Kenai brown bears Learn more here.
State of Alaska v. Bernhardt (Alaska Wildlife Alliance as intervening defendant). Represented by Trustees for Alaska.
Preventing Unethical Sport Hunting in Alaska’s National Preserves
The National Park Service is now allowing sport hunters to bait and shoot brown bears; shine flashlights into dens to kill hibernating black bears and their cubs; shoot wolves and coyotes, and their pups, during the denning season; and shoot caribou from motorboats while they’re swimming in Alaska’s National Preserves. We’re suing the Parks Service stop these egregious practices. Learn more here.
Alaska Wildlife Alliance, et al., v. Bernhardt, et al. Represented by Trustees for Alaska.
2017 - Alaska v. Zinke[9]
2010 - West v. State Board of Game[10]
2004 - Alaska Center for Environment v. Rue[11]
2003 - Alaska Wildlife Alliance v. State[12]
2001 - National Parks and Conservation Ass'n v. Babbitt[13]
1999 - Brooks v. Wright[14]
1999 - Alaska Center for Environment v. US Forest Service[15]
1999 - Alaska State Snowmobile Ass'n V. Babbitt[16]
1997 - Alaska Wildlife Alliance v. Rue[17]
1997 - Alaska Wildlife Alliance v. Jensen[18]
1997 - Alaska Center for Environment v. Armbrister[19]
1992 - Didrickson v. US Dept. of Interior[20]
