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Conservation groups including the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance are suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide protection for wolverines in the lower 48 states, saying the animal faces a handful of threats. PHOTO COURTESY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated federal law when it refused to protect the estimated 500 wolverines in the lower 48 states, according to a handful of environmental groups, including the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance.

Earthjustice filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue Fish and Wildlife on Tuesday on behalf of 10 conservation groups, including the conservation alliance, Defenders of Wildlife and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. The groups say the small population of wolverines that remains in the U.S. faces numerous threats, including climate change, trapping, habitat fragmentation and winter recreation.

Around Jackson Hole, wolverines inhabit southern Yellowstone, the Tetons, the Snake River Range and the Palisades. The agency declined to list the wolverine as endangered or threatened in a decision last March. Fish and Wildlife scientists justified the decision by saying wolverine populations remain viable in Canada and that the Canadian population and the U.S. population are contiguous.

Earthjustice staff attorney Tim Preso said relying on Canada to keep a species off the Endangered Species List violates the spirit of the Endangered Species Act.

“The Bush administration has adopted this policy that we can make the lower 48 states a sacrifice zone and outsource wildlife protection to other countries,” he said. “That is not what the Endangered Species Act is all about.”

Preso pointed out that if Fish and Wildlife used the same logic with wolves, grizzly bears, peregrine falcons and bald eagles, none of those populations likely would exist today in the lower 48 states.

Preso: Climate change ignored

“It would have been OK to wipe out our national symbol in the lower 48 states on the basis that you can still go see bald eagles in Alaska,” he said. “This kind of rationale is a big departure from past practice. This administration has done everything it can to frustrate and corrupt the Endangered Species Act.”

Preso said Fish and Wildlife acknowledged that wolverines in the lower 48 states are threatened and could become extinct but didn’t acknowledge the potential effects of global climate change on the species.

“The service blew that off,” he said. “We think that is something that is really important and should be considered.”

Climate change is important because female wolverines rely on snowpack that persists into late spring to make their dens and rear their young, Preso said. Scientists say climate change will likely decrease snowpack across the West. “We have an administration that has done everything it can to ignore global warming impacts,” he said. “I think we’re seeing more and more scientific recognition that global warming is going to be a big problem for a number of species.”

Winter recreation threatening

Louise Lasley, public lands director for the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, said wolverine dens around Jackson Hole also face threats from winter recreation.

“One of the challenges for protection of wolverines in this area is the growing amount of winter recreation into areas that were previously inaccessible to snowmobiles or typical backcountry skiers,” she said. “Unfortunately for the wolverine, they’re very sensitive to the presence of human activity. Just the presence of even ski tracks can alarm a denning female and cause her to abandon her denning site.”

Lasley said Jackson Hole’s wolverines are a good example of a population that is mostly isolated by habitat fragmentation resulting from development such as roads and housing.

Diane Katzenberger, spokeswoman for Fish and Wildlife, wouldn’t respond to the lawsuit specifically, but she said federal officials carefully followed the procedures outlined in the Endangered Species Act. The only threat identified was an “inadequacy of regulatory mechanisms” like hunting, she said, which only occurs in Montana, where 12 wolverines are taken each year.  

When compared with Canada, she said, “we didn’t believe the difference in harvest regulations significantly influenced the persistence of wolverine populations.”

“Wolverines naturally occur in low densities,” she said. “The lack of sightings doesn’t necessarily mean that wolverines are declining.”

Katzenberger also said the U.S. population is not distinct from the Canadian population and that it does not significantly contribute to the genetic diversity or viability of Canadian or Alaskan populations.

In March, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said protecting the species isn’t warranted because genetic tests show that U.S. wolverines are too similar to animals in Canadian populations.

Federal officials said they would continue “to seek new information regarding the status of the wolverine.”