Agency to reconsider wolverine status

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to reconsider denial of Endangered Species Act protection for the wolverine, a snow-dwelling furbearer at the center of a lawsuit filed last year by Defenders of Wildlife and eight other groups. The reconsideration is in an agreement, filed Wednesday, to settle the case. The agreement requires the approval of U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula. The Fish and Wildlife Service said in March 2008 that even if wolverines disappeared from the contiguous 48 states, the species would survive because wolverines in the United States are connected to larger populations in Canada. Defenders of Wildlife said documents show the Fish and Wildlife Service supported protecting the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act, but the support was overridden by politically driven officials in the Interior Department. The settlement requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to issue a determination of the wolverine's status by December 2010...AP