Feds withdraw proposed wolverine listing

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Aug. 12 that it is withdrawing a proposal to list wolverines in the Lower 48 as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, a decision that does not sit well with environmental groups who have threatened to sue the federal government.

According to an agency press release, wolverines have made a steady recovery in the past half century after hunting, trapping and poisoning nearly wiped out the species from the Lower 48 in the early 1900s.

After considering the best available science, FWS determined that the effects of climate warming are not likely to place wolverines in danger of extinction now or in the foreseeable future.

Saying future effects of climate change on wolverines are uncertain, the agency said it will continue to work with state partners to manage healthy and secure wolverine populations.

FWS director Dan Ashe said he made his decision with the support of a consensus recommendation from the agency’s three regional directors for regions that encompass the wolverine’s known range in the Lower 48 — the Mountain Prairie, Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest regions.

“Climate change is a reality, the consequences of which the Service deals with on a daily basis,” Ashe said. “While impacts to many species are clear and measurable, for others the consequences of a warming planet are less certain. This is particularly true in the Mountain West, where differences in elevation and topography make fine-scale prediction of climate impacts ambiguous.”

Ashe said FWS scientists “simply do not know enough about the ecology of the wolverine and when or how it will be affected by a changing climate to conclude at this time that it is likely to be in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future.”  

FWS initially proposed to list the wolverine based on climate change modeling that forecasted loss of spring snow across the wolverines’ range. However, following a more thorough review and gathering of additional information, the agency concluded that climate change models are unable to reliably predict snowfall amounts and snow-cover persistence in wolverine denning locations.

FWS also concluded that wolverine populations grew in the second half of the 20th century and may continue to expand into suitable, unoccupied habitat. The agency cited wolverine sightings in California in 2008, Colorado in 2012 and Utah this year.

The Missoula-based Western Environmental Law Center responded to the news by saying it intends to sue.

“This is another example of the Service and Director Ashe caving to political pressure from special interests, preventing sound wildlife management in the western states,” said Matthew Bishop, director of the group’s Rocky Mountain office. “It is obviously time for the Service to employ the precautionary principle and protect a clearly imperiled species before it’s doomed to extinction.”

Two local groups, Friends of the Wild Swan and the Swan View Coalition, joined a dozen groups in signing the Western Environmental Law Center’s press release.