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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Tuesday, August 12, 2014 that it is withdrawing a proposal to list the North American wolverine in the contiguous United States as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The wolverine, a large but elusive member of the weasel family found in the Mountain West, has made a steady recovery in the past half century after hunting, trapping and poisoning nearly extirpated the species from the lower 48 states in the early 1900s. Wolverine populations currently occur within the contiguous United States in the North Cascades Range in Washington and the Northern Rockies of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and a small portion of Oregon (Wallowa Range).

The Service does not believe the species is in danger of extinction now or in the foreseeable future and does not meet the statutory definition of either a "threatened species" or an "endangered species" and does not warrant protection under the ESA. The agency will continue to work with state partners to monitor wolverine status and manage for healthy and secure wolverine populations.

Simultaneous with the withdrawal of the listing proposal, the Service is withdrawing a proposed special rule under Section 4(d) of the Act that would have created protections for the conservation of the species, and a proposed nonessential-experimental-population designation for the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.

Related Links Service Determines Wolverine Does Not Warrant Protection Under Endangered Species Act - U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, August 12, 2014