Wolverines may see trouble again

Glad to hear that wolverines are coming back into our state [“Wolverines rebound,” page one, Feb. 1].

However, let’s not forget that it’s only 15 years ago wolves were reintroduced into the Yellowstone Park. This short period of time in which wolves have become part of the ecology in our area again has shown that an initial introduction can become a slaughter of wolves in this short space of time.

More than 1,000 wolves have been killed in the last year and a half in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. All it took was an amendment stating that wolves were no longer an endangered species inserted into a bill that was supposed to deal with that budget. The Montana senator who did this knew exactly what he was doing: Kill[ing] wolves without any scientific evidence.

This will still be going on in the next year, which means that over half the wolf population will be gone.

So don’t get your hopes up for the wolverine. The reason it was eliminated in the first place was because it was listed as vermin.

It can and probably will be listed that way again.

--Wayne D. Clark-Elliott, Renton