{"id":2135,"date":"2020-12-14T18:20:07","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T18:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=139211"},"modified":"2020-12-14T18:20:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T18:20:07","slug":"coalition-lawsuit-science-says-wolverines-need-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/14\/coalition-lawsuit-science-says-wolverines-need-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition Lawsuit: Science Says Wolverines Need Protection"},"content":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON – Today, a coalition of wildlife advocates challenged<\/a> the Trump Fish and Wildlife Service\u2019s (the Service\u2019s) decision<\/a> to deny protections to imperiled wolverines under the Endangered Species Act. This is the second time the Service has prioritized politics over science for wolverines, which number about 300 in the contiguous U.S.<\/p>\n The groups in today\u2019s filing defeated the Service in court in 2016<\/a>, forcing the agency back to the drawing board with a directive to apply the best science. Four years later, the Service has returned with the same decision to deny wolverine protective status, despite no new scientific support for such a determination.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is yet another chapter in this administration\u2019s war on science,\u201d said Matthew Bishop, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center. \u201cPublic records reveal the Service decided not to protect wolverine from day one and then worked backwards to figure out how to make the decision stick. It\u2019s really unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n In April 2016, a federal judge sided with conservation groups, agreeing that the Service\u2019s August 2014 decision not to list wolverine as threatened was arbitrary and contrary to the scientific literature. The court held: \u201c[T]he Service\u2019s decision against listing the wolverine as threatened under the ESA is arbitrary and capricious.<\/p>\n