Opinion: A New Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Rule

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A graduate student working on an animal research project in the northern Sierras got a photo of what she thought was a marten, a variety of weasel. It turned out to be a wolverine – perhaps an honest-to-goodness California wolverine, believed to have vanished after a run of thousands of years in these parts, run out of the state by human activity.

If the wolverine’s existence is verified and it’s found to be an endangered species here, which is being considered, that could upset the applecart of land-use decisions. Somebody might stand to lose a lot of money because of this critter, whose only natural predator is man.

It might not be just scientists who are trying to find the wolverine. Some other folks might be on its trail too … this time not with cameras but with traps, or even guns.

A few years ago, an environmental consultant to a Concord construction project reported finding no endangered California red-legged frogs on the planned building site – even though employees had seen several of them. The feds said the consultant and his employees moved adult frogs and hundreds of tadpoles to a smaller pond, away from where the homes were being built. Many of them died.

Here’s my plea to field biologists and the feds: next time an imperiled creature turns up unexpectedly, until the protections are in place, mum’s the word. Or “endangered” could very well wind up “extinct.”