On December 13th, 2010, the US Fish & Wildlife Service published a long-awaited report on the potential listing of the wolverine (Gulo gulo) under the Endangered Species Act.

Rare by nature, the 30lb (14kg) wolverine has achieved mythical status for its ability to kill moose hindered by deep snow and to drive wolves and grizzly bears from their kills. Scavenging and hunting, wolverines roam the high country where they depend on deep snowpack for denning. In fact, persistence of snowpack into late April is the greatest predictor of their occurrence, something that is measurably shifting due to climate change.

The USFWS report finds that protection under the Endangered Species Act is indeed warranted for the wolverine, but so great is the backlog of imperiled species, and so poor is the funding that protection for the wolverine must be deferred until the USFWS can deal properly with other priority species.

Although the report simultaneously acknowledges the imperiled status of the species and denies it protection, the report is at least significant in that it acknowledges that climate change impacts to habitat and connectivity are serious and reason to give rare and declining species like the wolverine federal protection.

This is a raw demo of some fire footage captured last fall in Yellowstone National Park. Leading up to this day, the fire had burned slowly through the old 1988 burn, but then it hit some unburned forest that had been denied fire for about 160 years. When it hit that, it really flared up. It’s pretty dramatic stuff, but it is cleaning out and regenerating this lodgepole pine forest.

To learn more about fire ecology, check out our award-winning film entitled Disturbance. It is well worth the watch.

I’m finally posting some pics from the Yellowstone fire.  This fire burned slowly at first, but finally hit some lodgepole stands that hadn’t burned in ~150 years.  Once it hit that, it was pushed by 20 mph winds.  This is a significant stand replacement fire, but alas, lodgepole is adapted to this.  It’s the park visitors that aren’t.

Stand Replacement in Lodgepole - Yellowstone 2009

Huge flames in fire-adapted lodgepole.

Environmental lawsuits brought by myriad organizations tend to make me uneasy, but I completely agree with the main contention of this lawsuit, which was that the impacts of climate change were not considered in the delisting and these impacts are SIGNIFICANT.  If you live in this area, as I do, you cannot deny the impacts.  The catastrophic collapse of the whitebark pine is something I’ve seen happen in just the last 8-10 years and is nothing short of stunning.  This particular tree is the hub of many ecological systems, and it will be reduced by over 90% in the next decade.  No doubt.  I’ve already seen ENTIRE mountain ranges collapse.  Unfortunately, without a return of those week-long cold plunges of -45F in January, the Yellowstone grizz will probably remain on the list indefinitely.  At least the protection takes the sting off of the food crash by affording more protections on the periphery.

Photo: Conservation Media

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/grizzly_bears_back_on_endangered_species_list/C559/L559/