A lawsuit has been filed over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision not to provide wolverines with Endangered Species Act protection/USFWS
Whether climate change is adversely impacting wolverines, something the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believes is uncertain, is being challenged by a coalition of conservation groups that is suing the agency to provide Endangered Species Act protection to the small carnivores.
Earlier this year Noreen Walsh, director of the agency's Mountain-Prairie Region, which includes Wyoming and Montana, decided there wasn't enough evidence to demonstrate climate change was adversely affecting the species, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times. That development led other biologists outside Fish and Wildlife to speculate that politics, not science, had forced that decision.
On Monday eight conservation groups announced they would challenge that decision in court.
Back in February 2013 the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the wolverine as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act after the agency's biologists concluded global warming was reducing the deep spring snowpack pregnant females require for denning.
But, according to the conservation groups, "after state wildlife managers in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming objected, arguing that computer models about climate change impact are too uncertain to justify the proposed listing," Ms. Walsh ordered her agency to withdraw the listing. The reversal came despite confirmation by a panel of outside experts that deep snow is crucial to the ability of wolverines to reproduce successfully, the groups said.
'The wolverine is a famously tough creature that doesn't back down from anything, but even the wolverine can't overcome a changing climate by itself,' said Earthjustice attorney Adrienne Maxwell in a release. 'To survive, the wolverine needs the protections that only the Endangered Species Act can provide.'
The groups behind the lawsuit are the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Northwest, Friends of the Clearwater, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Idaho Conservation League, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, and Rocky Mountain Wild.
Wolverines have been spotted in Denali National Park, Yosemite National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Glacier National Park, and North Cascades National Park, among others. It's difficult to say just how many wolverines are wandering around the parks. Their extensive travels, sneaky scavenger-like maneuvering, and solo dwelling make it difficult for researchers to closely monitor their patterns.
In their lawsuit (attached), the groups maintain that "the best available scientific information" predicts that snowfields that wolverines rely upon will shrink by nearly a third by 2045 due to climate warming, and by more than 60 percent by 2085.
"This threat of habitat loss associated with climate change is compounded by other threats facing the wolverine population in the lower-48 states, including highly isolated and fragmented habitat, extremely low population numbers, recreational wolverine trapping in Montana and incidental trapping elsewhere, and disturbance from winter recreation activities that has been demonstrated to disrupt wolverine reproductive denning," the lawsuit states.
Against this data, the lawsuit added, "FWS did not identify any new scientific information that cast doubt on the previous conclusions of the agency's own expert biologists. Nor did FWS identify any existing scientific information that the agency's biologists had overlooked. Instead, FWS attempted to apply a new interpretation of the existing scientific record in an effort to justify a refusal to afford the wolverine any protections under the ESA. In so doing, FWS disregarded the best available scientific information and the recommendations of its own scientists, made numerous analytical errors, and ultimately violated the ESA."
At the Center for Biological Diversity, endangered species director Noah Greenwald said Ms. Walsh's decision is "yet another unfortunate example of politics entering into what should be a purely scientific decision. All of the science and the agency's own scientists say the wolverine is severely endangered by loss of spring snowpack caused by climate change, yet the agency denied protection anyway.'
"The best available science shows climate change will significantly reduce available wolverine habitat over the next century, and imperil the species,' said Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance's Siva Sundaresan. 'As an agency responsible for protecting our wildlife, FWS should not ignore science and should make their decisions based on facts and data.'
"One of the most important things that we can do to get wolverines on the road to recovery in the face of a warming climate is to get them back on the ground in mountain ranges where they once lived,' said Megan Mueller, senior conservation biologist with Rocky Mountain Wild. 'We are disappointed by the Service's decision not to list wolverines under the Endangered Species Act as protections would have helped to facilitate such efforts in Colorado and beyond.'
'The remote, rugged, and snowy North Cascades are ideal wolverine habitat,' said Dave Werntz, Science and Conservation Director with Conservation Northwest. 'Protection under the Endangered Species Act will help wolverine survive a warming climate, shrinking snowpack, and increasingly fragmented habitat.'
Comments
And there have been 6 category 4 storms in the Pacific this year, and it looks like Gonzolo just got upgraded to Category 4 in the Atlantic just as I post this. And it sure was nice watching 6.7 inches of rain fall on the Smokies yesterday. That's equivalent to a 67 inch snowstorm falling in the rockies as a blizzard in an 8 hour span. October is usually a dry month, and these storms of 5 inches or greater are happening with increasing frequency. Warmer air holds more moisture, and that is simple science. These events are increasing, and it's because of a warming climate.
Also, let's refuse to even mention the lack of sea ice up in the arctic this year, and how Alaska has suffered from a heavy warming period.
I refuse to listen to tea partiers anymore when it comes to any discussion about scientific topics. Most of them do not work with scientists or are scientists themselves, and just becaue they scream the loudest on the internet doesn't mean their words carry more weight and intellectual might. Far from the case.
All for it. But then we had near record snow last year. Nearly a foot of snow already this year and the skiing opens next week. Let the wolverines have it.
No the data it is being compared to - i.e. "dating back to 1880" has been questioned.
And as I pointed out hours ago, coming up with an excuse to manipulate the data doesn't validate the data.
Sorry - doubled
I think ec is disagreeing and arguing with himself. Talk about circular arguments . . . . .
And you are critical of me for using 1 year - which I never did. You get a rainy day in the Smokies and its proof of global warming?
Heck, even you said trends have been going on for centuries, which would put it well before humans had any meaningful carbon footprint.
But you said the trends have been going on for centuries.
The planet never had 8 billion primates digging up stored carbon and burning it and placing it into the atmosphere. That's an entirely new phenonmenon to the planet. But hey, I look beyond just the few years i've been on this rock and am able to see that. Maybe, i'm just more self-aware?
And once again, I showed you a graphic that shows that these heavy rain events are occurring at a more frequent rate. But reading comprehension is not your strong suit, obviously.
Carry on though. I'm done with you. I've been done with you for a long time. You're officially on ignore.
I'm kind of glad that even though a vocal minority of denialists waste their time clogging up online comment sections, there are reasonable people in the world who look at the tens of thousands of peer-reviewed research papers documenting evidence for climate change and act accordingly. I'm confident the wolverine will be given endangered species protection.