An Alexander Archipelago wolf, found only in southeast Alaska. (Robin Silver / April 7, 2008)
Federal authorities announced Friday that the geographically isolated Alexander Archipelago wolf of southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest may need protection under the Endangered Species Act to survive the impact of logging, hunting and trapping in its old-growth habitat.
Populations of the rare subspecies of gray wolf are in steep decline in portions of the heavily logged region, where they den in the root systems of western hemlock and Sitka spruce and hunt black-tailed deer, which also rely on the ancient trees to shield them from harsh winters.
The wolf, which scientists know as Canis lupus ligoni, relies on the deer for 90% of its diet during the winter months.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to determine within a year whether protecting the wolf as endangered or threatened is warranted.
The decision comes in response to a petition filed in 2011 byGreenpeace and the Center for Biological Diversity, which states that continued logging in the Tongass is destroying habitat and bringing new roads into the area, making the wolves -- and their prey -- increasingly vulnerable.
“The Alexander Archipelago wolf, one of Alaska’s most fascinating species, needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act if it’s to have any chance of survival,” Rebecca Noblin, Alaska director of the center, said in a prepared statement.
The Fish and Wildlife Service considered listing the wolf as an endangered species in the 1990s, but scrapped the idea after the U.S. Forest Service adopted new protective standards in its 1997 Tongass Forest Plan.
The environmental groups’ 2011 petition, however, argues that the Forest Service’s implementation of that plan and of a 2008 amended version is inadequate.
“Time is running out for this remarkable wolf,” Larry Edwards, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said in an interview. “The main population exists on Prince of Wales Island -- the third-largest island in the United States -- which is already crisscrossed by 3,000 miles of logging roads.”
“Yet another large logging operation on the island -- the largest in the Tongass in 20 years -- is temporarily on hold because of wolf issues,” he added. “The bottom line: The wolf can’t afford further intrusion of roads, or further loss of habitat for its prey.”
A recent study by David K. Person, a wildlife scientist and expert on wolves and deer in southeast Alaska, says that continued old-growth logging on the island “will likely be the collapse of a sustainable and resilient predator-prey ecological community.”
“That community includes deer, wolves, black bears and people,” the study says. “Because of pressures to sustain subsistence deer hunting as habitat is lost, there will be immense public and political pressure to kill wolves and bears.”
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“Time is running out for this remarkable wolf,” Larry Edwards, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said in an interview. “The main population exists on Prince of Wales Island -- the third-largest island in the United States -- which is already crisscrossed by 3,000 miles of logging roads.”
“Yet another large logging operation on the island -- the largest in the Tongass in 20 years -- is temporarily on hold because of wolf issues,” he added. “The bottom line: The wolf can’t afford further intrusion of roads, or further loss of habitat for its prey.”
A recent study by David K. Person, a wildlife scientist and expert on wolves and deer in southeast Alaska, says that continued old-growth logging on the island “will likely be the collapse of a sustainable and resilient predator-prey ecological community.”
“That community includes deer, wolves, black bears and people,” the study says. “Because of pressures to sustain subsistence deer hunting as habitat is lost, there will be immense public and political pressure to kill wolves and bears.”
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Rare Alaskan Wolf Closer to Endangered
Species Act Protection
Alexander Archipelago Wolf Threatened by Logging in Tongass National Forest
ANCHORAGE, Alaska--(ENEWSPF)--March 28, 2014. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago wolves may need protection under the Endangered Species Act because of unsustainable logging in the Tongass National Forest and elsewhere in southeast Alaska. The agency will now conduct an in-depth status review of this rare subspecies of gray wolf, which lives only in the region’s old-growth forests.Today’s decision responds to a scientific petition filed in August 2011 by the Center for Biological Diversity and Greenpeace. Following the status review and a public comment period, the agency will decide whether or not to list the species as threatened or endangered.
“The Alexander Archipelago wolf, one of Alaska’s most fascinating species, needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act if it’s to have any chance at survival,” said Rebecca Noblin, Alaska director of the Center. “The Endangered Species Act is the strongest law in the world for protecting wildlife, and it can save these beautiful wolves from reckless logging and hunting.”
Alexander Archipelago wolves den in the root systems of very large trees and hunt mostly Sitka black-tailed deer, which are themselves dependent on high-quality, old forests, especially for winter survival. A long history of clearcut logging on the Tongass and private and state-owned lands has devastated much of the wolf’s habitat on the islands of southeast Alaska.
“This gray wolf subspecies exists only in southeast Alaska, and its principle population has declined sharply in the last few years,” said Larry Edwards, Greenpeace forest campaigner and long-time resident of the region. “Endangered Species Act protection is necessary to protect the wolves, not least because of the Forest Service’s own admission that its so-called transition out of old-growth logging in the Tongass will take decades. The negative impacts on these wolves are very long-term and have accumulated over the past 60 years of industrial logging.”
Logging on the Tongass brings new roads, making wolves vulnerable to hunting and trapping. As many as half the wolves killed on the Tongass are killed illegally, and hunting and trapping are occurring at unsustainable levels in many areas. Despite scientific evidence showing that Alexander Archipelago wolf populations will not survive in areas with high road density, the Forest Service continues to build new logging roads in the Tongass. Road density is particularly an urgent concern on heavily fragmented Prince of Wales Island and neighboring islands, home to an important population of the wolves.
In 2013 the Alaska Board of Game authorized killing 80 percent to 100 percent of the wolves in two areas of the Tongass because habitat loss has reduced deer numbers so that human hunters and wolves are competing for deer — putting yet more pressure on the wolf population.
The Fish and Wildlife Service considered listing the wolf under the Endangered Species Act in the mid-1990s but then chose not to do so, citing new protective standards set out in the Forest Service’s 1997 Tongass Forest Plan. Unfortunately, as outlined in the conservation groups’ 2011 petition, the Forest Service has not adequately implemented those standards.
Today’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 90-day finding on the Alexander Archipelago wolf determined that protecting this wolf as threatened or endangered “may be warranted” under three of the five factors specified in the Endangered Species Act: (1) present or threatened destruction of habitat; (2) overutilization (e.g., from hunting and trapping); and (3) the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms.
The finding can be viewed at:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/Alexander_Archipelago_wolf/pdfs/2014-06791.pdf.
Our August 2011 petition to list the Alexander Archipelago wolf is at:
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/Forests/Wolf_ESAPetition_CBDandGreenpeace_10-Aug-2011.pdf.
A recent declaration by Dr. David Person, the foremost Alexander Archipelago wolf researcher, concerning the wolf population on Prince of Wales Island is at:
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/781891-exh-79-dave-person-admin-appeal-statement-final.html.
The Center for Biological Diversity
is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than
675,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of
endangered species and wild places.
Greenpeace
is the leading independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful
protest and creative communication to expose global environmental
problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and
peaceful future.
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