What happened: Despite scientists at the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) stating in an official memo that, based on the science, the wolverine should be listed a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, FWS leadership decided to ignore the scientists’ recommendations and not move forward with the listing. FWS leadership stated that “the effects of climate change are not likely to place the wolverine in danger of extinction now or in the foreseeable future.”
Why it matters: When a species goes extinct, it is gone forever; FWS leadership’s decision to ignore science undermined the primary mechanism we use to ensure that endangered or threatened species do not go extinct. The Endangered Species Act requires that decisions about whether to list a species as endangered or threatened be made “solely on the basis of the best scientific and commercial data available” [emphasis added]. By ignoring this fundamental requirement of the Endangered Species Act, FWS endangered the survival of the wolverine species.
Learn more about how documents under the Freedom of Information Act show that FWS scientists recommended listing the wolverine as threatened and how FWS leadership went against this recommendation.