Landowners, environmentalists, and policymakers worked together
to preserve a bear's habitat. In the late 1980s, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service served notice that it would likely put the
Louisiana black bear on its endangered species list. Years of
hunting and habitat destruction had taken their toll on the
bear, a shy and genetically distinct creature that requires huge
areas in which to roam and hunt. As best as anyone could tell at
the time, there were only a few hundred Louisiana black bears
left alive in the Mississippi River lowlands of Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Arkansas. Unfortunately, an Endangered Species
Act listing can provoke fear among landowners who believe that
the species uses their land. But a group of private
conservationists in the Mississippi River Delta helped to put
that fear aside. They wanted to save the bear, but they knew a
listing under the Endangered Species Act could mean an end to
property rights as they knew them. Eager to avoid a repeat of
the spotted owl fiasco in the Pa