For Immediate Release
Contacts: Dave Gaillard, Predator Conservation Alliance, 406-587-3389
Jasper Carlton, Biodiversity Legal Foundation, 303-926-7606
Mike Senatore, Defenders of Wildlife, 202-682-9400, ext. 123
Tuesday July 11, 2000
ESA Protections Sought For The Wild Wolverine
Six conservation groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to protect the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act. The groups, led by Biodiversity Legal Foundation of Boulder, Colorado and Predator Conservation Alliance of Bozeman, Montana, claim that wolverines have been reduced to perhaps 800 animals, due to escalating human activity and destruction of their remote wildlands habitat.
The wolverine needs remote, wild country free from disturbances created by people. "There is a remarkable correlation between areas without roads and areas where the wolverine still survives," said David Gaillard of Predator Conservation Alliance. "Our analysis indicates that virtually every area of national forest lands in the northern Rockies with current wolverine observations lies in or immediately adjacent to a roadless or Wilderness area," he added.
The decline and increasing isolation of undeveloped, roadless habitat, disturbance due to snowmobiles and other motorized recreation, and trapping that remains legal in Montana are additional factors supporting the need for federal protections for the species.
"Wolverine habitat in the lower 48 is rapidly shrinking under the assault of development, roadbuilding, extractive industries, and escalating motorized backcountry recreation," said Jasper Carlton, Executive Director of Biodiversity Legal Foundation. "The wolverine won't survive with such seriously reduced numbers and no place to go. The Endangered Species Act may be the only way to prevent extinction of wolverines in the lower 48 states."
"The plight of the wolverine echoes the need to act right away to protect our public lands for a whole community of imperiled forest-dependent species, including the wolf, grizzly bear, and the lynx," said Mike Senatore, staff attorney for Defenders of Wildlife.
According to its regulations, the petition process gives the Fish and Wildlife Service 90 days to issue a finding on whether to move ahead with a 12-month status review, to determine whether the wolverine should be listed as an endangered or threatened species.
The petitioners include: Biodiversity Legal Foundation (Boulder, Colorado); Defenders of Wildlife (Washington, DC); Friends of the Clearwater (Moscow, ID); Northwest Ecosystem Alliance (Bellingham, WA); Predator Conservation Alliance (Bozeman, MT); and Superior Wilderness Action Network (St. Paul, MN).
wolverine | forest
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