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Feds to Wolverines: "You're On Your Own"

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Wednesday, August 13, 2014   

SEATTLE - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided wolverines should not be classified as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The agency has withdrawn its proposal to list the animals, citing uncertainty about whether wolverines might adapt to changing climate and shrinking habitat. They are found mainly in areas that receive deep, late-season snow in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Jeff Copeland, a Forest Service retiree who specialized in wolverine research, said the Fish and Wildlife Service has taken more than a decade to do an about-face with which, scientifically, he can't agree.

"They went through that procedure and it resulted in the decision that listing was warranted," he said. "You don't go back then and say, 'Well, it's just a matter of interpretation.' Well, it's not. My concern is that good, sound science lost."

Copeland, who now heads the nonprofit Wolverine Foundation, said he thinks the Fish and Wildlife Service bowed to political pressure from states that are short on resources and don't want to have to make recovery plans for the species.

There may be only 300 wolverines in the United States, with about two dozen in Washington that have been the subjects of extensive research.

Kylie Paul, a scientist with the group Defenders of Wildlife, said it isn't only lack of deep snowpack that's affecting the fierce little carnivore. Wolverines' reproduction rates are low, she said, and trapping, loud winter recreation and habitat degradation are other factors.

"They're just this amazing, tenacious animal," she said. "This native species that we have - it will be on its way out within our lifetime. They need to be able to withstand these issues that face them, now and in the future."

Conservation groups including Defenders of Wildlife requested ESA listing for wolverines in 2000. A coalition said it now will prepare to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Details of the decision are online at fws.gov.


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