According to a Western Washington environmental group and 10 others, wolverines in the 48 contiguous United States are endangered.
According to the federal government, they aren’t.
A judge will decide.
Conservation Northwest of Bellingham is among the 10 groups that announced last week they would sue the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife over its decision not to award endangered status to wolverines.
About 20 wolverines are believed to live in the Cascade Range in Washington state, including in some remote, rugged sections of Snohomish County. About 500 are left in the 48 contiguous United States, according to Conservation Northwest.
About 19,000 wolverines are believed to live in Canada and more still in Alaska, and the U.S. wolverines are an extension of the Canada population, according to the government. The decision not to list the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act was issued in March.
The small, reclusive animals with a reputation for ferocity once ranged all the way across the continent along the northern tier of the contiguous United States, according to Joe Scott, international programs director for Conservation Northwest. Now they are found only in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
“We have to determine the vulnerability of population based on what they’re doing in this country, not in another one,” Scott said.
Wolverine numbers have plunged because of trapping, habitat loss and climate change, according to Conservation Northwest. The animals, members of the weasel family, depend on deep snow for travel corridors and dens where they raise their young.
The wolverine population in the Lower 48 is a spread of the Canadian population, said Diane Katzenberger, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife in Denver. The populations mingle and depend on each other for genetic diversity, she said.
“We don’t have a lot of information regarding distribution and abundance in the Lower 48,” Katzenberger said, noting the animals are reclusive, rarely seen and difficult to study.
“We don’t really know if they’re in decline because we don’t have enough information regarding their abundance or distribution to make that assessment.”
Not so, says Scott.
“There’s no data to show the population is contiguous, and moreover, it’s irrelevant,” he said.
The two sides disagree on whether the Endangered Species Act allows populations outside U.S. boundaries to be taken into consideration when determining whether a species is threatened or endangered. Scott says no; Katzenberger says yes.
Recent research shows a widely dispersed population of wolverines that live at high elevation in the north Cascade Mountains, according to Keith Aubry, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station. Wolverines have been spotted in the mountains as far south as Mount Adams.
The regular range of the wolverines known to live in Washington is the Cascades from the Canadian border to the Glacier Peak Wilderness in north Snohomish County.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
