Feds grant wolverine Endangered Species Act protections

By Reader Staff

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Nov. 29 that it will protect the wolverine population in the lower 48 states as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. 

A wolverine walks along a tree branch. Courtesy photo.

Wolverines once roamed across the northern tier of the U.S.; but, after more than a century of trapping and habitat loss, wolverines exist today in small, fragmented populations only in Idaho, Montana, northeast Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. 

The decision comes after a decades-long campaign by conservationists that required six rounds of litigation — most recently in 2022, when conservation groups succeeded in persuading a federal judge to vacate a 2020 decision by USFWS denying protections for wolverines, sending the agency back to the drawing board and paving the way for the recent listing. 

“This long-awaited decision gives the wolverine a fighting chance at survival,” stated Timothy Preso, an Earthjustice attorney who represented conservation groups in the long-running legal campaign to protect the wolverine. “There is now hope for this icon of our remaining wilderness.” 

Conservation groups originally petitioned to list the wolverine as threatened under the Act in 1994 and again in 2000. Wolverine populations are at risk from traps, human disturbance, habitat fragmentation and extremely low population numbers resulting in low genetic diversity. In addition, the wolverine — the largest terrestrial member of the weasel family — is threatened with habitat loss due to climate change, as the animals depend on areas with deep snow through late spring. Pregnant females dig their dens into the snowpack to birth and raise their young. 

Scientists estimate that no more than 300 wolverines remain in the lower 48 states, including in Idaho.

“Biologists estimate a loss of more than 40% of suitable wolverine habitat in Idaho by 2060 if we fail to act,” stated Jeff Abrams, wildlife program associate for the Idaho Conservation League. “This decision allows us to move forward on recovery actions to prevent such extensive loss of wolverine habitat and recover wolverine populations.”

ICL was among several conservation groups represented by Earthjustice in the most recent suit to protect the wolverine, including, the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Northwest, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Clearwater, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Sierra Club and Rocky Mountain Wild.

“With only a few hundred remaining in the entire lower 48 states, Endangered Species Act protections are critical to recovering the wolverine,” stated Bonnie Rice, national wildlife campaign manager for the Sierra Club. “Today’s court decision gives this amazing, snow-dependent species a long-overdue lifeline in the face of massive habitat loss due to climate change.”