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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Fish and Wildlife: Moose may warrant ESA listing

DNR has no position on the proposal, but others question the value

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 6/9/16

REGIONAL— Minnesota’s moose population could eventually have federal endangered species protection under a proposal put forward by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last Thursday. The agency …

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Fish and Wildlife: Moose may warrant ESA listing

DNR has no position on the proposal, but others question the value

Posted

REGIONAL— Minnesota’s moose population could eventually have federal endangered species protection under a proposal put forward by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last Thursday. The agency announced that a federal listing of the subspecies of moose found in Minnesota and other parts of the Upper Midwest “may be warranted” given the substantial decline in the moose population in recent years.

The determination came in response to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity, filed earlier this year. Following an initial 90-day review, federal officials determined that the listing may be needed, a determination that launches a much more substantial review before a final decision could be made. That review is supposed to take no more than one year, but in practice is likely to take considerably longer to complete. The review process will involve substantial public input.

The FWS’s finding pertains to the U.S. population of the moose subspecies (Alces alces andersoni), commonly known as the Northwestern Moose, found only in the Upper Midwest and large portions of central and northern Canada. Specifically, the agency found that Endangered Species Act protection may be necessary for moose in northeastern and northwestern Minnesota, northeastern North Dakota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Isle Royale and a small, recently established population in Wisconsin. 

“The Endangered Species Act is the best tool we have to prevent extinction of our moose,” said Collette Adkins, a biologist and attorney who works in the CBD’s Minneapolis office. “I’m saddened that moose are in such big trouble that they need the Act’s protection but relieved that help is likely on the way for these iconic symbols of the North Woods.”

It’s unclear, however, whether a federal listing would have much impact on the moose population in Minnesota, which is already protected from all but limited tribal hunting.

“I’m not sure what good it will do,” said Dr. John Pastor, longtime University of Minnesota-Duluth biology professor and researcher. Pastor said a combination of factors, particularly poor quality habitat, appear to be behind the decline of moose.

Other researchers contend that health concerns, primarily the increasing incidence of parasites carried by whitetail deer, are taking a bigger toll on the moose than in the past. Still other research has suggested that increases in wolf numbers in the heart of the state’s moose range, may also be contributing to high mortality, particularly for moose calves.

While most research on the moose decline has focused on causes of excess mortality, Pastor said he believes the moose range is suffering from too much middle-aged aspen, which provides poor quality habitat for moose, which has suppressed the population. “Wildlife species can withstand a lot of mortality if their habitat is good,” he said.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which suspended the moose hunting season until further notice in 2013, has not taken a position on the listing proposal, according to Rich Baker, who heads the agency’s threatened and endangered species program. Baker notes that the DNR has conducted extensive research on the Northwestern Moose in recent years and that it plans to provide a primarily informational role in the FWS’s deliberations over the proposed listing. “We want to help them make a good determination. Otherwise, we don’t have a position on it,” he said.

The listing, if ultimately approved, could present wildlife managers with the unusual prospect of having to manage two endangered or threatened species, one of which preys on the other. As recent research has demonstrated, gray wolves are a significant source of mortality for moose, particularly moose calves, yet management of the region’s burgeoning wolf population has been largely precluded by the species’ official status as a threatened species in its own right.

Most wolf researchers believe the wolf population, particularly in Minnesota, has recovered to the point where management, such as hunting, no longer poses a threat to the species’ viability in the state. While the FWS formally de-listed the gray wolf in the Upper Midwest in 2011, a 2015 court ruling has put the wolf back under federal protection for the foreseeable future.

Northeastern Minnesota holds, by far, the largest remaining wolf and moose populations in the Upper Midwest, but the moose population has shown significant decline over the past several years. The latest population survey, conducted by the DNR, put the region’s moose population at just over 4,000 animals.