In 2000, several conservation groups filed a petition asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to protect the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act.  Three years later, the agency denied the wolverine protection under the Endangered Species Act, finding that it did not have enough scientific information to make a decision.  The agency had previously made a similar finding in response to petition submitted by conservation groups in 1994.  Last fall, a federal judge in Montana ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service was wrong to reject the petition and ignore “substantial scientific information” indicating that the wolverine may need federal protection.  The court ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to review scientific evidence on the status of the wolverine, and decide whether to place the wolverine on the endangered species list by February of 2008.  The FWS is now conducting this review, and will take public comments on whether the wolverine should be protected under the Endangered Species Act until August 6th. 

Wolverines are one of the rarest and least-understood predators in North America.  The historical North American distribution of the wolverine included the northern part of the continent southward to the northernmost tier of the United States, from Maine to Wahington State.  It extended south along mountain ranges through Oregon into California, and through Colorado into Arizona and New Mexico.  Trapping, habitat loss and other factors have significantly reduced wolverine numbers.  Wolverines are thought to have disappeared from Colorado in the early 1900s.  Though unconfirmed reports of wolverine sightings persist in Colorado and other Rocky Mountain States, only Idaho and Montana report populations of known extent.  Conserving and restoring wolverines will require us to work to address a variety of known and potential threats, including continued habitat loss and fragmentation, trapping, disturbance due to backcountry skiing and snowmobiling and other human activities, lack of connectivity between “island” populations in mountain ranges in the lower 48, and climate change.

Center for Native Ecosystems is partnering with other conservation organizations to comment on the FWS review.  We will continue to advocate for Endangered Species Act protection for the wolverine, with the hope that one day in the distant future, we will be celebrating the wolverine's recovery and perhaps even its  return to Colorado's high country.