Enviro groups file suit, claim wolverines at risk due to global warming

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Montana charges that federal wildlife managers broke the law and violated the Endangered Species Act in multiple ways when they abandoned consideration of protecting the wolverine. A 38-page complaint was issued by the law firm Earthjustice on Oct. 13 on behalf of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Greater Yellowstone Coalition and six other environmental advocacy groups. The coalition alleges three violations of the Endangered Species Act: a failure to rely on the best available science, an “arbitrary and capricious” evaluation of the species’ listing factors and a failure to recognize threats to the wolverine throughout a significant portion of its range. In a statement the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance said best available science indicates that climate change “will significantly reduce available wolverine habitat over the next century, and imperil the species.”...more