Federal agency denies protection for wolverines
DENVER, Co. (KIFI/KIDK)-The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that wolverine populations are not as endangered now as much as they were in 2013.
As a result, the agency has determined the species does not meet the definition of threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The service has withdrawn its listing proposal. The species will continue to be managed by state wildlife agencies and tribes.
The wolverine is the largest member of the weasel family, which includes weasels, otters, ferrets, and martens and is primarily found in the higher elevations of Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.
Key to the USFWS finding was new information from genetic and observational studies linking those populations to those in Canada and Alaska. According to the agency, “wolverines in the lower 48 states do not qualify as a distinct population segment and they are instead an extension of the population of wolverines found further north.”
You can see that report here.
A coalition of conservation groups, including Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity, Idaho Conservation League, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition intend to appeal the decision.
“Recent scientific information makes clear that wolverines face threats from destruction of their snowy habitat due to climate change,” said Earthjustice attorney Timothy Preso. “We intend to take action to make sure that the administration’s disregard of the real impacts of climate change does not doom the wolverine to extinction in the lower-48 states.”
With fewer than 300 wolverines left in the contiguous United States, the groups said there is no justification for the Service’s decision to deny protection. Listing wolverines as threatened or endangered would trigger new, badly needed conservation efforts.
“Once again, the federal government has failed the wolverine,” said Brad Smith, North Idaho director at the Idaho Conservation League. “Without critically needed conservation efforts that a threatened or endangered listing would trigger, we fear that future generations of Idahoans will never be lucky enough to see the rare and sensitive wolverine.”
