WASHINGTON -- Alaska Rep. Don Young says he's introducing a bill to allow trophy hunters to import hides of polar bears legally killed in Canada.

Young also is reintroducing legislation to allow importation of hides from polar bears shot by hunters before the bears were declared a threatened species three years ago.

The listing triggered a ban on importing hides.

Young says that as of the listing on May 15, 2008, there were 41 hunters who had legally killed bears.

He says the hunters complied with all laws in place at the time and now have to pay to store their trophies because bureaucracy and politics have gotten in the way of their rights.

Young says there's no conservation value in a dead bear held in cold storage in Canada.