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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Fish and Wildlife Decision: Wolverines Not "Threatened"

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Wednesday, August 13, 2014   

JACKSON, Wyo. - A decision on whether wolverines should be considered "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act took 14 years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided the animals are not imperiled, citing uncertainty about the ecology of the wolverine.

Wolverines are found mainly in areas that receive deep, late-season snow in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington. Kylie Paul, who has been researching wolverines for several years at Defenders of Wildlife, said wolverines are clearly at risk of extinction - and climate change is part of the problem.

"If we're not willing to protect a species that has only 250 to 300 individuals," she said, "one of the rarest mammals in the Lower 48, how imperiled does a species have to get to get federal protection?"

While there may be up to 300 animals, Paul said their reproduction rates are low and it's estimated that only a few dozen females are able to reproduce each year. Wolverines do survive in higher numbers in Canada.

Paul said wolverines have declined not just because of changing snowpack levels and timing but also because of trapping, loud winter recreation and habitat degradation.

"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."

Wildlife organizations including Defenders requested ESA listing for wolverines in 2000. Fish and Wildlife proposed listing the species as "threatened" last year, mainly because of climate change, but reversed that stance Tuesday.

Details of the decision are online at fws.gov.


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