skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Court Decision Means Wolverines Are Still Eligible for Federal Protection

play audio
Play

Thursday, April 14, 2016   

BILLINGS, Mont. - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is denying politics played a role when it went against the recommendations of its own scientists and decided not to grant endangered species status to the wolverine.

Last week a judge ruled the agency has to reconsider the recommendations of its own experts, who said there are only about 300 of the animals left, and their habitat is shrinking because of climate change.

Dave Werntz is the science and conservation director for Conservation Northwest, one of several groups that sued to overturn the agency's decision.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service is required to use scientific information to inform their decision making," he said. "What the court determined here was they didn't do that. They didn't listen to their scientists."

The wolverine is a large weasel whose range in Montana is centered on Glacier National Park but is also found in Wyoming, Idaho and Washington. Trapping had been allowed in Montana until 2012, when a judge halted it while the endangered-species process played out. The state of Montana has said that climate change is not an imminent threat, and it wants to bring trapping season back.

Tim Preso, managing attorney with the Northern Rockies office of the conservation advocacy law firm, Earthjustice, the firm that took the lead in this case, said the public can't always rely on the government to protect the environment.

"It's important for the public to really play a watchdog role with these agencies, especially when there's strong political forces at play," he stressed.

The wolverine needs deep snow in order to build its dens and raise its young.

Carolyn Byrd, executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, one of the co-plantiffs, said the wolverine simply can't be allowed to die out in the lower 48 states.

"They're an incredibly rare and elusive and wild creature," she said. "I mean, they symbolize the wildness of the Northern Rockies as well as any other species we've got out there."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has the option to appeal the case to the Ninth Circuit. Earthjustice said they're ready to continue defending the wolverine.

The court's full ruling can be downloaded here.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021