Federal order targets polar bear guides April 1st 3:09 pm |
Alex DeMarban, Anchorage Daily News
Polar bear guides in the northeast Alaska village of Kaktovik are upset by a last-minute order from the Trump administration that appears to halt polar bear viewing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge until studies on its effects are completed.
The guides are worried they ll undergo a second straight year of lost income, after the COVID-19 pandemic last year prevented most tourism across Alaska. However, the practical implications of the order are uncertain because President Joe Biden s administration could undo the order.
The three-page order, signed Jan. 15 by former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, raises concerns presented by some village residents at past meetings about increased tourism, such as the heightened risk of bear and human conflicts and competition for seating on the small planes flying in and out of the community.
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The firing would be a violation of the president s directive, employee argues.
Senior Correspondent
An employee advocacy group is accusing the Biden administration of failing to follow through on its promise to reverse a Trump-era initiative aimed at making it easier to fire federal workers, instead using the nullified policy to dismiss a whistleblower.
Walter Loewen, a planning and environmental coordinator at the Bureau of Land Management, is facing a proposed removal after the agency said he performed inadequately. The dismissal, which is pending a final signoff from BLM management, follows Loewen raising concerns about a large and controversial oil and gas project on 1.5 million acres of federal land in Wyoming. Loewen and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the group representing him, said that timing is not a coincidence. Then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt gave the project final approval just weeks before Presiden