The Supreme Court denied accepting the case of the endangered polar bears’  habitat in the state of Alaska on May 1, 2017. The federal government wanted to give these creatures a 187,000 square mile home in Alaska that they wouldn’t be bothered in.

The decision made by the Appeals Court in December of 2010 to let the polar bears have land in Alaska will stand, even though people are not happy with the decision. Many argue that the new land designation will interrupt the oil industry, along with tribal sovereignty.

“Swept within that enormous block of land are the entire ancestral homelands for certain Native communities, as well as the largest and most productive oil field in North America,” the oil and gas group wrote to the Supreme Court. While 96 percent of the habitat area is sea ice, the remaining area includes, “industrial facilities, garbage dumps, airports, communities, and homes (from which bears are actively chased away) as ‘critical’ habitat that is purportedly free from ‘human disturbance’ or otherwise ‘unobstructed,'” the petition said, reported by adn.com.

Others still like the idea of the polar bears having a permanent home in Alaska. The Federal Government of Alaska said to the Supreme Court, “The Service did not designate any areas outside the geographical area currently occupied by polar bears because it determined that ‘occupied areas are sufficient for the conservation of polar bears in the United States.’”
Although this new conservation of polar bear land is good for the polar bears, it also hurts other people in Alaska that have been living in those claimed areas for years. Kristen Monsel, a Center for Biological Diversity attorney, said, “As Arctic sea ice continues to melt away, we’ve got to do a lot more, or Polar bears and so many other species will disappear forever.”