Dire Straits for Wolverine?

In February 2008, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared for the second time that it will not use the Endangered Species Act to assist what is one of the rarest forest mammals in the West. In 2000, a coalition of conservation groups including Conservation Northwest petitioned Fish and Wildlife Service to list the wolverine, largest terrestrial member of the weasel family, as a protected species under the Endangered Species Act.

Wolverines are troubled by small and fragmented populations, legal trapping of animals in Montana, slow reproduction, and disturbance of denning areas by snowmobiles and other recreation. Their plight can only worsen with global warming. Like bears, female wolverines select sites for birthing their young only in areas that retain snow until late spring. Global warming will likely mean far fewer such places in the Cascade Mountains, where today's wolverines remain.

“The administration is essentially saying, ‘Why bother? We don’t need wolverines in the US because there are wolverines in Canada,’” said Joe Scott of Conservation Northwest. “By that measure, why protect and recover any animals in the Pacific Northwest, like salmon, bald eagles, or gray wolves? Why even bother to have an Endangered Species Act?”

In Washington a couple of wolverines have been trapped by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists in the Pasayten Wilderness, but they are still considered extremely rare.