(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Conservation groups concerned with incidental trapping exceptions in wolverine listing – Daily Montanan [1] ['Blair Miller', 'More From Author', '- November'] Date: 2023-11-30 Conservation groups in Montana and the West largely applauded the decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday to list the North American wolverine as a threatened species, but some said they remain concerned that the animals could still be incidentally trapped under exceptions in the interim rule. The effort to get wolverines listed spans two decades and numerous court cases, and some of the groups involved in getting to this point say they are relieved, but feel the interim rule portion of the decision could be improved and will be submitting comments during the next two months to urge changes. “We appreciate that the Fish and Wildlife Service finally listed wolverines as threatened but their 4d rule, which allows trapping in wolverine habitat, is a road map for extinction, not recovery,” said Mike Garrity, the executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. “Wolverines are scavengers and will continue to be taken if trapping is allowed to continue. The Fish and Wildlife Service needs to follow the law like all Americans are required to do and come up with a plan to recover wolverines.” Though an official population estimate for the animal in the Lower 48 has not been released since 2014, at that time there were an estimated 250-300. Montana at one point had the largest estimated wolverine population in the Lower 48. Game camera studies conducted in the Mountain West in the 2016-17 and 2021-22 seasons found Idaho cameras detected the largest number of wolverines in the later study, while Montana cameras captured more in the earlier study, according to a report published by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks this summer. The next survey is scheduled for the winter of 2026-27. In 2020, a group of conservation organizations from Montana and other Western states again challenged the federal government’s decision not to list the animal, as was also the case six years earlier, which led to a decision last year in the U.S. District Court of Montana that again reinstated wolves as a candidate for listing and the order that led to Wednesday’s announcement. USFWS will have to prepare a wolverine recovery plan and identify protected critical habitat for wolverines. The decision says that climate change is decreasing the amount of high-mountain, snowpacked habitat where wolverines live and reproduce, which has made their outlook less secure than in previous studies. Wolverines will be added to the list in 30 days, but the public will have 60 days – through Jan. 29 – to comment on the interim rule that lays out exceptions for scientific research trapping, incidental trapping, and forest management to prevent wildfires. Those exceptions have some of the conservation groups concerned, especially in Montana, where baited wolf traps and snares can be used during the winter. “We are concerned about the allowances for trapping in wolverine habitat, and we will be taking a closer look at that,” said Western Environmental Law Center attorney Matthew Bishop. “We doubt it’s possible to trap without the risk of take.” KC York, the president and founder of Trap Free Montana, said in an interview the listing of the wolverine was a “huge step and it needed to happen.” But she also feels the interim rule should be changed so wolverines cannot be incidentally trapped either. “Wolverines get trapped. More have been getting reported trapped, and those are just the ones reported. And we cannot protect wolverines and condone trapping,” she said in an interview. That’s just not going to work.” York said in the early 2000s, the statewide number of wolverines that could be trapped each year was 10, but that was reduced to five in 2008. Wolverine trapping in Montana was halted in 2012, York said. But she said from 2013 to 2018, six were incidentally caught in traps. And after wolf trapping was allowed in Montana, she said more wolverines have been getting incidentally caught in those traps. York said in the first two months of this year, four wolverines were reported being caught in traps – three of them set for wolves. But she also believes many get caught in trapping incidents that are never reported. A federal judge last week limited wolf trapping season in most of Montana’s grizzly bear habitat to Jan. 1 to Feb. 15 out of concerns the grizzlies could also get caught in wolf traps, which would constitute an illegal take under the Endangered Species Act. But since coyote trapping and snaring is still allowed year-round in Montana, she believes any traps in wolverine habitat could jeopardize a population that has already been deemed threatened. “We don’t even know how many are left. Is it 200, 300, or is it 100? We don’t know. And like I said, that makes every one of those individuals all the more important, all the more significant,” York said. “So I think it’s a huge win and it’s about time, but you can’t say we’re going to protect something and help it recover and be sustainable, and then not address the significant issues that jeopardize their ability to succeed.” For its part, USFWS uses 4(d) rules often with ESA actions and said it had determined that the research trapping, incidental trapping, and forest management exceptions “are not likely to harm the species conservation.” “Wolverines are occasionally incidentally trapped and killed in the contiguous U.S. in the course of legal trapping for other species, even when such trapping is conducted consistent with state trapping rules that contain steps to minimize the potential for capture of wolverine,” the agency said. “This occurs at low levels in a portion of the breeding range and does not currently represent a threat to the wolverine in the contiguous U.S. at the population or species level.” U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Montana, who had sent a letter to the USFWS along with Rep. Ryan Zinke and Sen. Steve Daines asking for a delay in the decision because of the methodology used, which included factoring in climate change, criticized the decision for the same reasons in a statement Thursday. “This decision subjects any action regarding the species to the whims of (Interior Secretary Deb) Haaland – whom Montanans have very little faith in – while incentivizing the federal government to establish additional regulations and limitations on Montanan’s private property and the recreational use of federal lands under the guise of conservation and protection of a species that may very well be thriving,” he said. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesperson Greg Lemon said Thursday the department doesn’t agree the listing is warranted from a biological standpoint, but that there is not much the decision affects in the short term. “We’ve got wolverines in the habitat; we expect to find wolverines in Montana. So, we don’t think that listing them is going to make a difference,” he said. He explained the main reason the department thinks that is because there is no current hunting or trapping season for wolverines in Montana that would have to be shut down. But the listing will likely affect long-term species management strategies, he said. “I think we need to take a look at the listing and really look through it before we can really determine what the long-term management impacts might be, how the listing might change how we do wildlife management in wolverine areas,” he said. “But at this point, my guess is that’s going to be much a more deliberate and complicated review and conversation as we move forward with this.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/11/30/conservation-groups-concerned-with-incidental-trapping-exceptions-in-wolverine-listing/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/