Missoula, Mont. (January 2026)
Today, a coalition of wildlife advocates filed a complaint in the Federal District Court for the District of Montana against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to designate critical habitat for wolverine, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in November of 2023. The law requires the Service to designate critical habitat within a year of listing, but the agency has not done so nor issued a proposed rule, even though only about 300 wolverines remain in the Lower 48 states.
Scientific studies show that critical habitat designation is a primary driver in the recovery of imperiled species. As such, in the Endangered Species Act, Congress directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide a “means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved,” with explicit deadline requirements to do so.
The wildlife advocates seek to promote wolverine recovery by ensuring the most important areas for supporting these populations are protected via a court-ordered, agreed-upon deadline for the agency to designate critical habitat.
