KVRI asks for info on wolverine listing
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March 20, 2013 |
The Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative will
host a public meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, April 1,
at the Kootenai River Inn, and they've requested
that U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff from the North
Idaho field office attend to provide a briefing
on their proposal to list the North American
wolverine as threatened under the Endangered
Species Act.
An estimated 250 to 300 wolverines now occur in
the lower 48 states, where the species has
rebounded after broad-scale predator trapping
and poisoning programs led to its near
extinction in the early 1900s. This was in part
due to the states protecting the species from
unregulated trapping.
Currently, wolverines occur within the North
Cascades Range in Washington and the Northern
Rockies of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and a small
portion of Oregon.
Under the proposal, made February 1, the USFWS
does not consider most activities occurring
within the high elevation habitat of the
wolverine, including snowmobiling and
backcountry skiing, and land management
activities like timber harvesting and
infrastructure development, to constitute
significant threats to the wolverine. As a
result, the Service is proposing a special rule
under Section 4(d) of the ESA that, should the
species be listed, would allow these types of
activities to continue.
“This proposal would give us the flexibility to
tailor the protections for the wolverine
provided by the ESA to only those things that
are necessary,” said Noreen Walsh, director of
the Service’s Mountain-Prairie Region.
To read the full story on the proposal,
click here. |
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