BY PEPPER FISHER
Olympic National Park – Should Olympic marmots, which live exclusively on the Olympic Peninsula, be listed as an endangered species?
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) thinks so, and last month they filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior of violating the Endangered Species Act by missing a mandatory deadline to determine whether the furry creatures should be protected under federal law.
The suit contends that the delay “increases the risk of extinction” for the Olympic marmot, whose colonies are primarily in the alpine meadows of Olympic National Park.
The animals hibernate for about eight months each year and emerge in summer to eat and procreate. Scientists say their populations have dropped significantly over the past 30 years, with some colonies disappearing entirely.
Center for Biological Diversity spokesman Aaron Kunkler told us that the marmot population, thought to be between 2,000 and 4,000 individuals, is dwindling because of warming temperatures, which causes the tree line to rise, which in turn attracts their primary predators, coyotes.
“Coyotes were historically absent from Olympic National Park back when there were wolves on the peninsula. And it’s thought that they just kind of out-competed the coyotes. But after the wolves were eradicated in the nineteen-hundreds, the coyotes were able to move into the park. And I think the main thing here is that, you know, wolves do eat marmots, but they generally hunt below the tree line, whereas coyotes, they’re much more likely to go above the tree line, up into the meadows where marmots are. And that’s also coupled with climate change allowing the tree line to progress uphill further, and can eat away into those sub-alpine meadows where the marmots live. So, it’s kind of a one-two punch.”
John Bridge, who lives in Sequim, is part of a group called Olympic Park Advocates, and has spent years surveying marmots and their colonies. We asked him why, if all or most of the colonies have been identified, it’s so hard to tell how many of them there are.
“I used to tell my wife we counted marmots, but we don’t count marmots at all. And that’s because it’s like whack-a-mole. They’ve got a colony, and there’s a bunch of different boroughs, and one pops up, and then, “Oh! Oh!” And then it goes down, and then another. “Well, which? What? Was that the first one or was that a different one?” And so, that’s why, you know, 2,000-4,000, that’s pretty broad. It’s really hard to count them.”
Kunkler said the CBD petitioned U.S. F&W to protect the marmots under the Endangered Species Act in May 2024. But the nonprofit alleges the agency has failed to issue an initial determination, known as a 90-day finding, which would ideally lead to a year-long study before the designation can happen.
Now, the nonprofit is asking the court to declare that F&W violated the law and compel the agency to issue a finding by a certain date.
We reached out to F&W for comment on the lawsuit, but the agency website says officials may not be able to respond to inquiries during the ongoing federal shutdown.
(Photo by John Gussman)