A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider ESA protections for wolverines/USFWS file
A federal judge in Montana has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider protecting the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act, ruling that the agency committed "serious errors" that undermined its 2020 decision not to extend those protections.
It was back in October 2020 that Fish and Wildlife officials declined to extend threatened status under the ESA to the small but fierce carnivore, saying wolverine populations were doing fine. Part of that decision was based on a 2018 "Species Status Assessment" that noted that "wolverine appears resilient within its contiguous United States range." The assessment pegged the wolverine population in the country at 318, with potential habitat to support 644 individuals. Canada, meanwhile, claims thousands of wolverines, according to the assessment.
That decision was challenged in December 2020 by conservation organizations that maintain there are fewer than 300 wolverines left in the contiguous United States, and that listing wolverines as threatened or endangered would trigger new, badly needed conservation efforts.
In his ruling late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy gave the wildlife agency 18 months to determine whether wolverines deserved to be relisted. In that 15-page ruling, Molloy wrote that the Fish and Wildlife Service erred in relying on "Canadian wolverines to establish connectivity, genetic diversity, and population density" with those in the United States.
The judge also wrote that "it is troubling that the scientific studies that the agency now contends merit further review [of listing status] existed at the time the Service made its 2020 decision but were not considered."
Wolverines, the largest land-dwelling members of the weasel family, once roamed across the northern tier of the United States and as far south as New Mexico in the Rockies and Southern California in the Sierra Nevada range. After more than a century of trapping and habitat loss, wolverines in the lower 48 today exist only as small, fragmented populations in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming and northeast Oregon.
In the wolverine’s last strongholds, the species is at direct risk from climate change. Wolverines depend on areas with deep snow through late spring. Pregnant females dig their dens into this snowpack to birth and raise their young. Snowpack is already in decline in the Western mountains, a trend that is predicted to worsen with a warming climate.
Wolverine populations are also at risk from traps, human disturbance, habitat fragmentation and extremely low population numbers resulting in low genetic diversity.
Wolverines have been spotted in Denali National Park, Yosemite National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Glacier National Park, and North Cascades National Park, among others. It's difficult to say just how many wolverines are wandering around the parks. Their extensive travels, sneaky scavenger-like maneuvering, and solo dwelling make it difficult for researchers to closely monitor their patterns.
The 2018 assessment Fish and Wildlife based its 2019 decision on presented a rosy picture of wolverine populations, stating that "wolverines occupy areas in the west-northwestern United States, and have recently dispersed into historically occupied areas, including California, Utah, Colorado, and Oregon; verified reproducing wolverine populations are found in Idaho, Washington (Northern Cascades), Montana, and northwest Wyoming. One individual wolverine (female) was also documented from 2004 until its death in 2010 in Michigan."
“The wolverine deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act, and this is a step toward ensuring the species does not suffer additional harm before that happens,” said Amanda Galvan, associate attorney with Earthjustice’s Northern Rockies office, in the wake of the decision. “FWS previously ignored key studies that illustrate the threats the wolverine continues to face due to global warming. By reviewing a more complete picture of the species’ circumstances, we are hopeful that the agency will identify the need for increased protections.”
With regained status as a candidate species, the wolverine will be afforded certain protections under the Endangered Species Act while Fish and Wildlife reconsiders whether it should be listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA. Federal agencies must confer with the Service on any action they take that might harm wolverines. The health and safety of wolverines and their habitat must also be considered in planning decisions that could destroy or degrade their critical habitat.
“The wolverine is a test case. How do we protect snow-dependent species in the era of climate change?” said Joseph Vaile from the conservation group KS Wild in southern Oregon. “One thing is certain. Without federal protections, this majestic species will be another climate change casualty.”
Earthjustice represents a broad coalition of conservation groups in the lawsuit — the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Northwest, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Clearwater, Idaho Conservation League, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Sierra Club and Rocky Mountain Wild.
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Comments
Sounds like an appropriate step, from what I know.