Groups sue feds over lack of wolverine protections

A coalition of conservation groups on Monday sued the Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its director over the agency’s recent decision to withhold Endangered Species Act protection from wolverines in the Lower 48, which number about 300 in the contiguous United States.

In a decision notice released Oct. 8, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) said the “best available science” shows factors that were believed to be impacting wolverine populations in 2013, when the agency proposed to list the species as threatened, are not significant enough to justify following through with the listing.

“New research and analysis show that wolverine populations in the American Northwest remain stable, and individuals are moving across the Canadian border in both directions and returning to former territories,” the notice states. “The species, therefore, does not meet the definition of threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Accordingly, the Service has withdrawn its listing proposal.”

The new litigation, filed in the Missoula Division of the U.S. District Court of Montana, challenges that finding, among others. Western Environmental Law Center is representing conservation organizations in the case, which include Wild Swan, Swan View Coalition, WildEarth Guardians, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Footloose Montana.

The groups are the same ones that took the federal agency to task in 2016 after USFWS attempted to withdraw its 2013 protection proposal for the first time in 2014. A federal judge sided with the plaintiffs and determined the agency’s decision was arbitrary and capricious.

“No greater level of certainty is needed to see the writing on the wall for this snow-dependent species standing squarely in the path of global climate change,” Western Environmental Law Center Attorney Matthew Bishop said in a prepared statement. “It has taken us 20 years to get to this point. It is the [court’s] view that if there is one thing required of the Service under the Endangered Species Act, it is to take action at the earliest possible, defensible point in time to protect against the loss of biodiversity within our reach as a nation. For the wolverine, that time is now.”

And today, more than four years after the court asked USFWS to re-examine its proposal to list the species as threatened, the agency’s decision remains unchanged.

“Why did the Service make the decision it did on the Proposed Rule, based on what it determined to be the best available science, and reject that decision 18 years months later?” the ruling questioned. It continued, “based on the record, the Court suspects that a possible answer to this question can be found in the immense political pressure that was brought to bear on this issue, particularly by a handful of western states.”

WHILE THE new litigation stems from decisions that have unfolded over the last five years, wolverines have been a conservation topic of interest for some time now. In 2000, after researchers noted the species was imperiled by climate change, habitat loss, small population size and trapping, groups petitioned for the first time to have the species listed.

For the next two decades, that petition and subsequent ones would be tossed up and down the halls of federal court. Concerns related to climate change have remained at the heart of conservationists' reasons for wanting the species listed — something USFWS has determined wolverines are not threatened by, according to the lawsuit.

Wolverine are snow-dependent and can be found within a wide variety of habitats, including boreal forests, tundra and western mountains throughout Alaska and Canada. Currently, populations are found in the North Cascades in Washington and the Northern Rocky Mountains in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming.

The 2016 lawsuit states wolverines are “custom-built for life in mountainous, snowy environments, and [rely] upon snow for its existence at the most fundamental level.” It also highlights the animal’s “obligate” relationship with snow for natal denning purposes, meaning the wolverine requires snow in order to reproduce. As one example, in Montana, den sites occur above 7,874 feet.

According to a federal overview of the species, wolverines tend to live in more remote, inhospitable places away from human populations and occur at low densities and are rarely and unpredictably encountered where they do occur. These attributes make it difficult to determine their present range, or trends in range expansion or contraction that may have occurred in the past.

Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com