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.

A federal court in Montana last week concluded that – surprise! – the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service illegally ended consideration of the wolverine for Endangered Species Act protection.  Colorado and the Southern Rockies were once home to wolverines before we trapped and shot them out altogether.  Periodically we hear reports about wolverine sightings but these are usually dismissed as escapees from captivity (apparently we’ve got some captive wolverine in the state).  Wolverines are one of the rarest wildlife species in the lower 48 states but only survive today in the northern Cascades of Washington and the Northern Rockies.

The court concluded that the Service illegally ignored scientific information showing “a dramatic loss in range, the tangible decrease in population with the commensurate threat of genetic isolation of subpopulations, and the threat posed by human encroachment on wolverines."  With the ongoing recovery of the lynx in the Southern Rocky Mountains, perhaps we might imagine someday beginning a wolverine recovery program as well.

Sinapu has a great photo up on their blog, by the way.