Wolverines now protected under ESA in lower 48

[TurkeyReaper69]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/29/wolverine-climate-endangered/

What're y'all's thoughts?

 

[survivalistd]

I think everyone needs a new pet..

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

 

[jimh406]

Man, it seems really dumb that Grizzlies were protected and Wolverines were not.

Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I understand Wolverines are rarely seen by people. I can't imagine they cause much of an issue, but maybe I'm just uninformed.

 

[t_carlson]

That will be another good cause of action for enviros to sue over and stop the FS from logging projects.

Great!!!

 

[FYG]

With only 250-300 in the lower 48, it was bound to happen sooner or later. In dozens of days into the Beartooth over several years, I've only ever seen one. Mid-December at 10,000' bird dogging some ewes in the scree. Their habits and range are pretty wild- one was gps tracked from the Tetons in the summer to the Beartooths that fall. In the GYE, they're probably okay from much human encroachment and interaction, but outside of the large tracts of wilderness, they've got an uphill battle, especially when dipshits poach them, it certainly doesn't help our (hunters') cause in keeping them off the ESA.

FWP: Poacher killed, illegally skinned wolverine

Someone illegally killed a wolverine near the Continental Divide and Schultz Saddle in southwest Montana earlier this month, according to state game wardens.

www.kulr8.com

 

[jimh406]

That will be another good cause of action for enviros to sue over and stop the FS from logging projects.

Great!!!

Maybe, but won't they have to prove logging isn't beneficial for them. Also, they'll have to find some. I could be wrong, but there aren't that many.

 

[t_carlson]

Maybe, but won't they have to prove logging isn't beneficial for them. Also, they'll have to find some. I could be wrong, but there aren't that many.

They will use the fact that there aren't that many to bring everything to a grinding halt.

Seen this playbook unfold before.

 

[Customweld]

They will use the fact that there aren't that many to bring everything to a grinding halt.

Seen this playbook unfold before.

Nailed it.

 

[hjg_wy]

I think it is a good thing.

I suspect that by and large nothing will change in the short term, with the likely exception of more dollars for monitoring, because the existing wolverine habitat in the lower 48 is on protected land. Maybe someday there would be some money for reintroductions, but it will take awhile to get to that point. Moreover, with climate change and lack of habitat, I don't think wolverines could be successfully introduced in much of their historic range... maybe parts of the upper peninsula in Michigan or the high country of Colorado and the cascades... but not many other places could still support them, I would guess (though I am no wolverine biologist!)

I've never seen a wolverine and it would be cool if there were a few more out there.

 

[Awfulhunter]

Agreed.

 

[MTSasquatch]

Long overdue. I wonder, if there were around 300 elk left in the lower 48, would fellas on this forum gripe about them getting protected? That’s a rhetorical question, however, I’m sure some would.

 

[Dos XX]

Didn't they cross them with an armadillo to get a wolverillo?

 

[jimh406]

Long overdue. I wonder, if there were around 300 elk left in the lower 48, would fellas on this forum gripe about them getting protected?

I don't know if there are only 250-300, or that is the guess. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information out there.

 

[flyfisher117]

Always wanted to see one. I remember seeing a documentary as a child that made them out to be blood thirsty savage killers. Made me terrified and made it sound like they were hiding behind every rock lol.

It is shocking how few people know they truly exist. Ran into a lot of people who think they're extinct or only in Alaska.

 

[cuerro viejo]

I wonder what this does to trapping regulations in general.

 

[Chrisamx]

I don't have any gripe about protecting wolverines, except that protections are ultimately a way for environmentalists and rewilders to further their insidious agendas, namely removing people form their lands.

 

[hjg_wy]

I just read a story relayed in a Barry Lopez essay about a hunter chasing a wolverine on a snow machine (native guy up in Alaska somewhere). The wolverine was always a ridge ahead looking back .... the hunter kept chasing, but ridge after ridge the wolverine stayed ahead. Until the hunter crested one ridge and the wolverine was running straight at him, jumped over the engine and hit the hunter right in the chest. knocked him off the snowmachine but didn't bite him. ..Like the wolverine knew he was being chased and said to hell with this.. Pretty great story

 

[MikeDeltaFoxtrot]

What is ideal wolverine habitat? The danger of ESA protection, is that the government can use it to stop you from developing or using your own private land.

 

[hjg_wy]

My understanding is that ideal habitat for wolverines is high and cold... Note also that the same habitat is relevant for other species that are ESA listed as threatened already. I honestly doubt there would be much changes to development plans due to wolverines, at least for a long time.

wolverines range so widely and so little is known about them other than they live up near the roof our country that I don't see a whole lot of immediate changes due to the listing coming down the pike.

 

[roadrunner]

I wonder what this does to trapping regulations in general.

They're safe from trapping in NM.