scooter
04-28-2008, 01:24 PM
PUBLICATION: Edmonton Journal
DATE: 2008.03.18
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A3
BYLINE: Randy Boswell
SOURCE: Canwest News Service
WORD COUNT: 488
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wildlife groups snarl at U.S. wolverine ruling; Canada's numbers relied upon to sustain American weasel's population
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S. government's refusal to list the wolverine as an endangered species in four northwest states has outraged American environmentalists, who accuse federal scientists of relying on Canada's relatively healthy wolverine numbers to avoid protecting the giant weasel south of the border.
"The Bush administration is essentially telling our wolverines, 'Sorry we can't help you, try Canada,' " said Jamie Rappaport Clark, Clinton-era director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and now vice-president of the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife.
The government's decision, revealed last week in a court-ordered study by the U.S. wildlife service, followed a successful lawsuit by ecology groups that compelled a review of the wolverine's fragile status in the northwest corner of the lower 48 states.
Ironically, even as American authorities relied on the Canadian wolverine population to reject special protections in the U.S., Canadian environmentalists have been pressing the Conservative government to declare the species threatened in this country.
In their study, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists concluded that the 500 or so wolverines living in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming don't merit special protection because they constitute an insignificant fragment of the mammal's population in Western Canada, estimated at 15,000 individuals.
"The service has determined that the wolverine population in the contiguous United States is not discrete," U.S. officials ruled, "because it is not separated from wolverine populations in Canada, and is likely dependent on them to some degree for maintaining genetic diversity."
They also decided that the wolverines in the northwest states are not significantly different from those in Alaska, which has about 8,000 of the fierce carnivores, which can weigh up to 40 pounds.
Denouncing her former agency's "stunning interpretation of its responsibilities" under U.S. law, Clark argued that the wolverine ruling "sets a new low in a long line of irresponsible, disturbing decisions" during the tenure of President George W. Bush.
"The Endangered Species Act," Clark said, "was designed to protect and preserve imperiled wildlife populations -- not so that we can pass our responsibilities off onto our border neighbours."
But last year, the Vancouver-based David Suzuki Foundation named the wolverine as one of eight iconic animals that face severe habitat loss and other threats in Canada, and which should be listed as species at risk.
Scientists suspect the wolverine is already extinct in Eastern Canada. COSEWIC, the federally mandated agency that monitors threat levels facing the country's wildlife, has recommended listing Western Canada's wolverine population as a species of "special concern," but the government has yet to do so. The wolverine did earn some recognition from Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year when he declared in a speech that it was time to ditch the famous elephant-and-mouse metaphor for U.S.-Canada relations.
Instead, Harper said, the U.S. is best imagined as a grizzly bear and that Canada could be thought of as a wolverine -- "We may be smaller, but we're no less fierce about protecting our territory."
DATE: 2008.03.18
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A3
BYLINE: Randy Boswell
SOURCE: Canwest News Service
WORD COUNT: 488
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wildlife groups snarl at U.S. wolverine ruling; Canada's numbers relied upon to sustain American weasel's population
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S. government's refusal to list the wolverine as an endangered species in four northwest states has outraged American environmentalists, who accuse federal scientists of relying on Canada's relatively healthy wolverine numbers to avoid protecting the giant weasel south of the border.
"The Bush administration is essentially telling our wolverines, 'Sorry we can't help you, try Canada,' " said Jamie Rappaport Clark, Clinton-era director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and now vice-president of the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife.
The government's decision, revealed last week in a court-ordered study by the U.S. wildlife service, followed a successful lawsuit by ecology groups that compelled a review of the wolverine's fragile status in the northwest corner of the lower 48 states.
Ironically, even as American authorities relied on the Canadian wolverine population to reject special protections in the U.S., Canadian environmentalists have been pressing the Conservative government to declare the species threatened in this country.
In their study, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists concluded that the 500 or so wolverines living in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming don't merit special protection because they constitute an insignificant fragment of the mammal's population in Western Canada, estimated at 15,000 individuals.
"The service has determined that the wolverine population in the contiguous United States is not discrete," U.S. officials ruled, "because it is not separated from wolverine populations in Canada, and is likely dependent on them to some degree for maintaining genetic diversity."
They also decided that the wolverines in the northwest states are not significantly different from those in Alaska, which has about 8,000 of the fierce carnivores, which can weigh up to 40 pounds.
Denouncing her former agency's "stunning interpretation of its responsibilities" under U.S. law, Clark argued that the wolverine ruling "sets a new low in a long line of irresponsible, disturbing decisions" during the tenure of President George W. Bush.
"The Endangered Species Act," Clark said, "was designed to protect and preserve imperiled wildlife populations -- not so that we can pass our responsibilities off onto our border neighbours."
But last year, the Vancouver-based David Suzuki Foundation named the wolverine as one of eight iconic animals that face severe habitat loss and other threats in Canada, and which should be listed as species at risk.
Scientists suspect the wolverine is already extinct in Eastern Canada. COSEWIC, the federally mandated agency that monitors threat levels facing the country's wildlife, has recommended listing Western Canada's wolverine population as a species of "special concern," but the government has yet to do so. The wolverine did earn some recognition from Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year when he declared in a speech that it was time to ditch the famous elephant-and-mouse metaphor for U.S.-Canada relations.
Instead, Harper said, the U.S. is best imagined as a grizzly bear and that Canada could be thought of as a wolverine -- "We may be smaller, but we're no less fierce about protecting our territory."