"Quickhatch" is another name for the Wolverine............."This is the name the trappers of the Rocky Mountains used when they wanted to call someone a worse name than devil" -- F. St. Mars, On Nature's Trail, 1912................. Quickhatch comes from the Native American East Cree language spoken in what is now Canada............The word was spelled kwi˙hkwaha˙če˙w................ It entered English in the 1670s and was earlier spelled quiquahatch................If we expect to have a sustaining USA "QUIQUAHATCH" population into the forever, then the USFW Service needs to heed the lawsuit brought against it by a consortium of Conservation Organizations............Gulo gulo needs big wilderness and deep persistent snowcover into the early Spring months for females to successfully birth their young(in snowcaves under deep snowcover).................The fact that the USFW buckled under Rocky Mountain States pressure not to list Wolverines as endangered is plain out criminal and ignoring all peer reviewed science showing that global warming is a direct threat to the scant numbers of the animal remaining in the lower 48 states..............As Jeff Copeland, Executive Director of the Wolverine Foundation stated recently----- "There is no scientific evidence to back up the claim that wolverine populations are at their highest levels and still growing"

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.tetonvalleynews.net/page2/groups-sue-over-decision-not-to-list-wolverines-as-endangered/article_99ca2260-5bb9-11e4-a837-17e78c7599d1.html&ct=ga&cd=CAEYBioTMTEzNTgzNTcxODY0NDAxMDE1MjIaYjg4MTYyM2YwYWMxMzkxNDpjb206ZW46VVM&usg=AFQjCNGwm5SkWYDAaDD6RKVpopF2Noj24w

Groups sue over decision not to list wolverines as endangered

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Posted: Friday, October 24, 2014 2:11 pm

Scott Stuntz TVN staff | 0 comments

Several environmental groups, including the Idaho Conservation League and the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service over its decision to not list the wolverine as an endangered species.

“The best available science shows climate change will significantly reduce available wolverine habitat over the next century, and imperil the species,” said Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance’s Siva Sundaresan in a press release.“As an agency responsible for protecting our wildlife, FWS should not ignore science and should make their decisions based on facts and data.”

The eight conservation groups are represented by Earthjustice in the suit to overturn the USFWS decision, filed in federal district court in Missoula, Montana.

The heads of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Wyoming Game and Fish and the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department supported the USFWS’ decision in September not to list the species as endangered.

“For the record, our states opposed the Service’s original recommendation to list wolverines based on our concerns about listing a species that is at its highest population level in the past 80-100 years—and still increasing,” the release said.

Jeff Copeland, Tetonia resident and Executive Director of the Wolverine Foundation, said that there is no scientific evidence to back up the claim that wolverine populations are at their highest levels and still growing.

The state agencies that opposed listing wolverines as endangered cited problems with the research the USFWS originally used in its proposal, research that was done, in part, by Copeland.

“What truly disappoints me here is what it [the decision] does to science,” he said. “Science has been made the villain.”

Idaho Department of Fish and Game Biologist Rob Cavallaro said that even though the species will not be listed as endangered, the state has already created a five-year management plan for wolverines.

“We consider it a species of greatest conservation need and are looking at proactive [measures] in travel planning,” he said.

Cavallaro said the fish and wildlife service looked at an endangered species listing for wolverines because of habitat loss due to climate change. Obviously, he said climate change is problem that one state agency, or one state, can’t address.

He said Idaho Fish and Game can address other threats to wolverines, which in Teton Valley means recreation on illegal trails.

“I know of illegal mountain bike trails that are being constructed in wolverine habitat as we speak,” Cavallaro said.

He said trails, not just bike trails but motorized ones as well, in areas that connect the colder, high altitude areas that wolverines dwell in can hurt the species.

If Teton Valley residents are concerned about wolverines, Cavallaro said, they should get involved with the local forest service travel plan. He said that means attending public meetings, not using illegal trails and reporting illegal use.