Feds Withdraw Proposal To List Wolverine Under ESA

[FWS]

Feds withdraw proposal to protect wolverine as endangered species

by Rocky Barker
Idaho Statesman
August 12, 2014

The Fish and Wildlife Service has withdrawn its proposal to list wolverine as an endangered species despite the threat presented to its high mountain habitat by climate change.

The weasel family member, known for its fierce tenacity, has a population of fewer than 300 animals in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon and California. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Daniel Ashe said scientists don’t know enough about the ecology of the secretive species, whose population has been small but stable in the U.S.

Females are known to be sensitive to disturbance around their dens. If disturbed, mothers may abandon the den and move their young, or kits, exposing them to cold, predators or other hazards. Studies of the effects of climate change on denning have not been conclusive.

The remote, rugged and snow covered mountains where they live for most of the year was a winter wilderness without humans until the 1980s, when more powerful snowmobiles made traveling through the powder snow easier. Skiers also increased their access into these alpine areas raised concerns among biologists and land managers.

In Idaho snowmobiles and skiers have cooperated with retired Forest Service Biologist Jeff Copeland, now the head of the Wolverine Foundation, who lives in Boise and Driggs.

Copeland and biologist Kim Heinemeyer conducted a study in the McCall in 2010 where GPS monitors were placed in collars on wolverines and carried by snowmobilers and skiers on trips into the back country. He said they had great cooperation, getting 90 percent of the users willing to carry the devices because of Mitchell and the snowmobile association.

With only five years of data scientists say it is too early to draw any conclusions from the research. The program has made group like the Idaho Snowmobile Association friends of the wolverine.

“We want to make sure they survive in healthy numbers,” said Sandra Mitchell, executive director of the Idaho Snowmobilers.

But wildlife advocacy groups said the service was giving into politics, not following science by not listing the wolverine.

“The Service is ignoring the numerous serious threats to wolverines, including the species’ low genetic diversity and impacts such as trapping and winter recreation,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of Defenders of Wildlife and a former director of the agency.

[FWS]

Press release from USF&WS,

Service Determines Wolverine Does Not Warrant Protection Under Endangered Species Act

Future effects of climate change on species are uncertain; Service will continue to work with state partners to manage healthy and secure wolverine populations

August 12, 2014

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that it is withdrawing a proposal to list the North American wolverine in the contiguous United States as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The wolverine, a large but elusive member of the weasel family found in the Mountain West, has made a steady recovery in the past half century after hunting, trapping and poisoning nearly extirpated the species from the lower 48 states in the early 1900s.

While it is clear that the climate is warming, after carefully considering the best available science, the Service has determined that the effects of climate change are not likely to place the wolverine in danger of extinction now or in the foreseeable future. As a result, the wolverine does not meet the statutory definition of either a “threatened species” or an “endangered species” and does not warrant protection under the ESA.

Service Director Dan Ashe’s decision to withdraw the listing proposal was informed by the consensus recommendation of the agency’s three Regional Directors for the regions encompassing the wolverine’s known range in the contiguous United States—the Mountain Prairie, Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest regions. The three Directors made the recommendation based on a synthesis of the entire body of scientific evidence. The Service had previously extended the listing deadline by six months due to substantial disagreement regarding the sufficiency or accuracy of the available data relevant to the determination, as allowed by the ESA.

“Climate change is a reality, the consequences of which the Service deals with on a daily basis. 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,” said Ashe. “In this case, based on all the information available, we 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.”

The Service initially proposed to list the wolverine based on climate-change-model forecasts showing overall loss of spring snow across the range of the species. However, upon conducting a more thorough review and gathering additional information, the Service found that climate change models are unable to reliably predict snowfall amounts and snow-cover persistence in wolverine denning locations. Additionally, evidence suggests that wolverine populations grew and expanded in the second half of the last century and may continue to expand into suitable, unoccupied habitat. For example, wolverine sightings outside formerly known habitat occurred in the Sierra Nevada range in California in 2008 and in Colorado in 2012. And in April 2014, a wolverine was seen in the Uinta Range of Utah—the first confirmed sighting of the species in that state in some 30 years. Currently, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that wolverine habitat impacts due to the effects of climate change will affect the population in the foreseeable future.

“While we concluded that the wolverine does not merit Endangered Species Act protection at this time, this does not end our involvement in wolverine conservation,” said Ashe. “We will continue to work with our state partners as they manage for healthy and secure wolverine populations and monitor their status. If new information emerges that suggests we should take another look at listing, we will not hesitate to do that.”

Wolverine populations currently occur within the contiguous United States in the North Cascades Range in Washington and the Northern Rockies of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and a small portion of Oregon (Wallowa Range). Populations once existed in the Sierra Nevada of California and the southern Rocky Mountains in the states of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.

Simultaneous with the withdrawal of the listing proposal, the Service is withdrawing a proposed special rule under Section 4(d) of the Act that would have tailored protections to those needed for the conservation of the species, and a proposed nonessential-experimental-population designation for the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.

Questions and Answers- Withdrawal of Proposal to List the Wolverine Under the Endangered Species Act

[Jarhead620]

They made the right call after all. It was bad enought to propose to list a stable species on the extreme periphery of it's range with nothing but an international boundary to support Distinct Vertebrate Population Segment status. Further, to make it all about the pure speculative "effects" of climate change on reproductive potential render the proposal as a dishonest farce.

So now we have Jamie Clark making the same phony protectionist claims that has characterized her career since the old days in OES. The ESA cries out for meaningful reform to prevent the continuation of this nonsense while protecting the integrity of the process. The Act has in large part become a full employment program for the more extreme animal welfare groups. Sadly this includes some formerly respected conservation organizations that have allowed fund raising to become their principal reason for being.

Jarhead

[trappincoyotes39]

Hum sounds like your describing the lynx as well .

[Jarhead620]

Pretty much the same set of facts tc. I wrote a paper opposing the lynx proposal, but the USFWS was so spooked by the heavy hitters in the so called "animal welfare" movement that they caved and made a flawed and useless listing. I'm waiting to see if they have the guts and integrity to resist rolling over on this one.

Jarhead