The Wolverine’s Day in Court

Judge hears arguments in the case to protect wolverines under the Endangered Species Act

There’s something extra exciting about encountering evidence of a very rare species. The tracks left behind in the snow on a recent backcountry ski in the mountains outside of Missoula, Montana let me know a wolverine had sauntered the same way I was headed. Keep on truckin’, I thought – both to my tired-out ski legs, and to the wolverine as well. That wolverine and the rest of the species in the lower 48 states have an uphill climb on the way to getting federal protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). But just a few days after, wolverines had their day in court.

If you recall, wolverines were *this* close to getting listed under the ESA not long ago. It took a listing petition, and a lawsuit, but Defenders finally convinced the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service (FWS), the agency in charge of protecting our nation’s most threatened and endangered species, to propose to list the species in 2013. At the time, scientists estimated there were as few as 250 to 300 wolverines across the entire Lower 48. FWS experts stated that the best available science showed wolverines were threatened by low population numbers and a loss of their snowy habitat due to climate change. These animals need deep springtime snow for denning – and scientists predicted that wolverines will lose 63% of their suitable snowy habitat in the Lower 48 by 2099. If that remaining habitat becomes too fragmented, the wolverines still remaining would be left only in tiny, isolated populations, and at risk of disappearing altogether. In 2013, it seemed an ESA listing to better protect this species was just around the corner. But at the 11th hour, the Service reversed direction and went against its own staff’s recommendations to list.

A leaked internal memo from high inside the Service showed that the decision to reverse the field experts’ recommendation rested on a review by the Regional Director. The conclusion of the review was that wolverines were not threatened by climate change and that their population numbers were doing just fine…a conclusion directly contrary to that of the experts, and with no new evidence to support it. Yet, as a result, the wolverine was denied protection. Defenders and other conservation groups focused on the recovery of wolverines had no choice but to challenge this decision, and filed a new federal lawsuit against the Service to overturn it.

On the wolverines’ day in court (an overly warm day this February), though there were no wolverines literally in the courtroom, the judge on the case brought them to life, telling the story of how he’d had the remarkable fortune to have not one but three wolverine sightings! As the oral arguments for the case went forward, there were hours of discussion and rebuttal, discussions that were entirely fascinating to the wolverine geeks in the room (including yours truly). But the simple version of our case is this:

• FWS did not back up its decision not to list the wolverine with sound scientific evidence. In fact, the experts and peer-reviewed science clearly shows that wolverine habitat will be drastically reduced in the future due to climate change.
• The Service’s new claim – that the wolverine population is increasing and will continue to increase, so listing is not required – is inaccurate and arbitrary. The best available science explains the population level is low and there is no evidence it is currently increasing. Claiming that a couple of individuals popping up here and there in California and Utah prove the population is increasing is not the kind of sound science required to meet the rigorous demands of the Endangered Species Act.

To us, this is a pretty clear-cut case. Our arguments are rooted in the best science that experts have to offer on these unique animals. The judge will take whatever time he needs to make his decision on this lawsuit, and we hope he makes the right one.

As it turns out, the warm day in February in Missoula, MT was not unique. Climate scientists now say that this past February was record-breaking… the warmest ever recorded. We would no doubt dance joyously in the streets if we could determine that in fact wolverines are thriving, with record-breaking population numbers, and that climate change has been halted (or at least slowed). The reality, sadly, is that that simply isn’t the case. Instead, we need to continue pushing hard to do all that we can to protect these animals and address the threats that a changing climate is bringing.