(CN) — Montana wants to end federal protections for North American wolverines, questioning the rationale behind protecting a population with roughly 300 individuals left in the lower 48 U.S. states.
The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks filed an intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday. It arrives two months after the federal agency announced its decision to list wolverines as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The final rule — published in the Federal Register on Nov. 30, 2023 — states that, while over 15,000 wolverines live in Canada and Alaska, “around 300” individuals remain in the contiguous U.S.
The service wrote in the rule that “a small population in the contiguous United States would be less of a conservation concern if there were greater connectivity with the larger populations in Canada.”
At the same time, the service’s Pacific Region Director, Hugh Morrison, issued a statement citing climate change and habitat fragmentation as relevant factors for protecting the small mammal.
“Current and increasing impacts of climate change and associated habitat degradation and fragmentation are imperiling the North American wolverine,” Morrison said. “Based on the best available science, this listing determination will help to stem the long-term impact and enhance the viability of wolverines in the contiguous United States.”
Yet, the move to protect wolverines is not sitting well with the Montana wildlife agency, mainly as the service withdrew its proposal to preserve the species in 2020 after finding the lower-48 population did not qualify as a distinct population.
That decision — met by two lawsuits in Montana’s federal court — was thrown out in 2022 after U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ordered the service to reconsider its findings.
Nonetheless, Montana released statements Friday indicating that the service’s underlying reasoning for its decision is wrong. The specific source of error, the agency wrote, involved the service’s reliance on 2100 climate models that depicted decreased snowpack for denning wolverines — a rationale used “despite recent science that shows wolverines are adaptable and able to den and produce without snow.”
“In the Northern Rockies, wolverines are doing well, and states are working closely on monitoring and conservation efforts,” said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks director Dustin Temple. “This listing is not only unnecessary, it fails to recognize current science.”
The agency’s chief of conservation policy, Quentin Kujula, also noted that Montana’s wolverines are doing well and inhabiting “much, if not all, of their available habitat.”
“We work closely with our neighboring states to ensure the continued conservation of these iconic species,” Kujula said. “Federal protections in this case will only get in the way of good conservation work.”
Carnivore conservation legal director Andrea Zaccardi from the Center for Biological Diversity disagreed, saying the best and most recent science shows wolverines need protection and that Montana has potentially misinterpreted the studies.
“Recent science shows that there’s no genetic connectivity and only about 10% of that 300-population number is actually reproducing,” Zaccardi said.
Zaccardi also hopes that the service will vigorously defend its decision.
“It’s just a continuous disappointment when it comes to protecting imperiled wildlife,” Zaccardi said of Montana’s wildlife management.
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