Wolves in the News
Wildlife groups call for end to Mexican wolf removal policy
PHOENIX - Two wildlife conservation groups have filed a lawsuit to keep federal agencies from aggressively removing endangered Mexican gray wolves from a recovery program in Arizona and New Mexico.
WildEarth Guardians and the Rewilding Institute have asked U.S. District Court in Phoenix to stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's removal policy, known as Standard Operating Procedure 13.
The groups say the policy, which calls for removing wolves that have attacked livestock more than twice, has decimated wolf populations. Removal can inv love killing the wolves or bringing them back to captivity.
Under the policy, Fish and Wildlife removed 45 wolves from the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area during the past three years. That's almost twice the number the agency removed in the prior seven years.
"We don't think the removal of any of the wolves in the wild is appropriate," Rob Edward, director of carnivore restoration at Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians, said Wednesday. "The top priority should be the recovery of the species." Fish and wildlife spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said she hasn't received a copy of the lawsuit yet, but she told The Associated Press that cattle ranchers have a right to protect their livestock from wolves. "When we put the wolves out, the cows were there. They were there legally," Slown said. "The ranchers aren't doing anything illegal."
Mexican gray wolves disappeared from the American Southwest during the past century as federal eradication efforts swept them from the wild. Conservation efforts began between 1977 and 1980, and in 1998, Fish and Wildlife reintroduced 11 Mexican wolves into the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area.
The area includes 4.4 million acres of the Gila and Apache Sitgreaves national forests in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern ARizona plus Arizona's 1.6 million-acre Whit Mountain Apache reservation, interspersed with private land and towns.
When the recovery program started, agency officials figured the wolves would thrive in the region and had expected 102 wolves and 18 breeding pairs by 2006. However, only 52 wolves remained in the recovery area at the end of 2007, according to the lawsuit.
The Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that it is working on a draft conservation assessment of the Mexican wolf that will provide a scientific foundation for the recovery program. Regional Director Benjamin Tuggle said the document will provide "some vision for the future" based on lessons learned by biologists since the recovery effort began.
Associated Press - May 2, 2008
In the West, A Fierce Battle Over Wolves
DENVER - Gray wolves have entered the spin cycle.
Since March 28, when the wolf was taken off the list of federally protected species in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, a fierce battle of perceptions and posturing has unfolded on the Web and in the news media as pro-wolf and anti -wolf forces stake out sometimes hyperbolic positions concerning where in the West animals and humans should exist.
The backdrop is a running time clock and a lawsuit. On April 28, a coalition of environmental groups has said it will go to federal court challenging the decision to lift protections.
Until then, the court of public opinion is in session, as cases are built for how the new system of state management is working or not.
One wolf lover in California, in a forum posting on the Web site Yellowstone.net, proposed that tourists boycott Wyoming to protest the policies in a state where at least 10 wolves were shot in the first week after the rule change, according to state figures. Some Wyoming residents responded that such an action would be just fine by them, especially if more Californians stayed at home.
Some ranchers and hunters urge caution in killing wolves unnecessarily, to avoid inflaming emotions that could haunt the legal process later on.
"I would certainly not want to create any useful ammunition, no pun intended, for the pro-wolf environmental groups that have announced their intention to sue," said Budd Betts, a dude-ranch operator and former Wyoming state legislator near Jackson Hole. "The legal aspect is connected to the emotional and political, and no judge is immune."
Pro-wolf forces, meanwhile, say that wolf killers may have created a martyr. On the first day protections were lifted, a partly crippled and much photographed radio-collared wolf named 253M was legally shot near the town of Daniel in western Wyoming.
The killing made headlines as far away as Utah, where 253M had wandered in 2002, before being transported back to Wyoming. A story in The Salt Lake Tribune quoted a woman as she had wept at the news of the animal's death.
Responding to what it says are numerous public inquiries, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department began a weekly wolf update on its Web site, starting on April 4th.
"We're hearing a lot, from all sectors of the public, "said a spokesman, Eric Keszler. "Some want no wolves to be killed - others ask where the trophy game area is going to be."
Wyoming, Montana and Idaho plan their first wolf trophy hunting seasons this fall. About 1,500 wolves inhabit the three states, most of them descended from 66 wolves introduced into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in the mid-1990's.
State management plans allow for wolf hunting - or in some places, outright eradication, with a target population of 150 in each of the three states.
Doug Honnold, the lead lawyer for the environmental coalition planning the lawsuit, said these initial weeks of state management were helping build his case that tougher restrictions of wolf hunting are needed.
"We often segregate the court of law and public opinion, but it's important to prevail in both," said Mr. Honnold, who works in the Bozeman, Mont., office of Earthjustice, a conservation group whose headquarters in in Oakland, Calif. "This wolf mortality that we're seeing now shows the need for a safety net."
But John Bair, the chairman of a multi-state hunters group, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, which strongly supported taking wolves off the Endangered Species lit, accused opponents of de listing with posturing and harboring hidden agendas. Ranchers and ordinary citizens who have killed wolves legally in recent days, he said are just following the law.
"My opinion is that they don't really care about the number of wolves - they care about the political advantage," Mr. Bair said, referring to the environmental groups. "The wolf is their silver bullet to do away with ranching and sport-hunting, which they oppose. That's what this is about."
Kirk Johnson, The New York Times - April 13, 2008
Conservationists want probe into wolf baiting
SILVER CITY, N.M. (AP) - Conservation groups want a federal investigation into allegations that a Mexican gray wolf was baited into killing a cow so the wolf, in turn, could be killed.
Representatives of 15 conservationist and environmental group have sent a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne requesting a probe by the inspector general.
The groups want the federal government to look into the possibility the wolf was killed through abuse of government-provided telemetry radio receivers.
They also want an investigation into whether ranchers are taking advantage of a rule that requires removal of any wolf that kills three head of livestock within a year.
Kempthorne’s office could not immediately comment until officials had seen the letter.
Associated Press - January 3, 2008
Catron County Kids Get Wolf Protection
GLENWOOD, N. M. - A lot of people in Glenwood and Reserve are scared as Mexican gray wolves recently reintroduced to the area have been coming into the Catron County communities.
Last week people spotted one just 17 yards from an elementary school playground, and the school district is now building enclosed shelters to protect kids at bus stops.
Any children playing at Glenwood Elementary are now overseen by an armed deputy.
It was Nov. 28 when a Mexican gray wolf apparently came dangerously close. It's just one of the many sightings in Glenwood and reserve in recent days.
"I couldn't believe my eyes," Joanne Blount of Glenwood told KRQE News 13. "None of us could believe what we were seeing right in front of us.
"It was right by the library community center."
Blount said she saw the wolf on Nov. 24. Misty Allred's brother-in-law told her he saw one a few days later.
"Just below the ridge here," Allred said.
Catron County Sheriff Shawn Menges said it's fair to say people are scared. Menges has now assigned a deputy to Glenwood Elementary full time, and other deputies are keeping watch in other areas.
School Superintendent Loren Cushman is especially concerned.
"The last day of school last school year we had two kids dropped off at their bus stop and they were followed home by a wolf," Cushman said. "We have several children out in the outlying areas that wait at the bus stop early in the morning."
One of the school district's solutions is to build 20 shelters like this with wire mesh and a door to put out at bus stops so kids can be protected while they wait.
But is the fear expressed by these residents is justified?
"Not if you look at the fact," Brian Millsap of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. "If you look at historical record you could say there is overreaction going on."
Those with Fish and Wildlife who oversee the wolf reintroduction program said wolves are not interested in hunting humans.
"There is no historical evidence of wolves attacking people in North America, certainly not in the United States in recent years," Millsap said.
But the Fish and Wildlife Service said it is trying to trap the wolf or wolves seen in town.
"If they don't move we have in the past actually gone in and brought the wolves out, trapped them, either relocated them and brought back in captivity," Millsap said.
But Catron County residents are not backing down.
"We put children before animals," said Cushman who added he thinks it's only a matter of time until a child is attacked."
The wolf reintroduction program began in southwestern New Mexico in 1998.
Several wolves have already been captured or killed by Fish and Wildlife because they preyed heavily on livestock.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is holding a series of public meetings this week about the program and possible modifications.
Reporter: Kim Vallez | Web Producer: Bill Diven KRQE News 13, Albuqerque, NM - 12/6/07. Images of Deputy and bus-stop shelters copyright KRQE News 13.
Commentary by Pamela Brown/Wolf Teacher
Here's more on the Catron County wolf drama. This is the same school - Glenwood Elementary, in the Gila Wilderness - where, in 1993, three local ranch ladies met me at the door when I came to do the DVD program. "We don't want wolves in Catron County ... or your program," said the eldest. I had made the booking with a new teacher, who was unaware of the profound hatred/fear of the wolves there. She fought back angry tears of disbelief as the "Cowbelles (Livestock Association Ladies Auxillary)" stood firm. Before I left, I apologized to the waiting 5th graders for their elders' decision to deny them endangered species education. Those were very disappointed kids.
Back home in Santa Fe, I called the media. The story played on TV & papers statewide for several days. Soon thereafter, the Silver City School Board in neighboring Grant County, declared the wolf program too controversial when a teacher requested it. I asked environmental attorney, Grove Burnett for help. I had had the wolves at his kids' school. Grove's letter, threatening legal action for obstruction, led to my taking Mission:Wolf and wolf, Shaman, to Silver City. Due to the devious spirit that is apparent in Catron, I chose not to put us all in jeopardy by returning to the Gila schools then.
This bad attitude is still playing out in 2008 with recent revelations of attempts to sabotage wolf reintroductions in Catron County. The public is now calling for investigations and prosecution of those involved in baiting wolves by branding cattle near wolf dens, thereby enticing wolves to eat livestock. Rules for the Mexican wolf reintroduction declare that a wolf will be removed if it attacks livestock 3 times. The intense concern for their children's safety is not reflected in this behavior. Unprotected livestock, dangled under a wolf's nose obviously invites it to come closer to humans.
Better to let children be a part of the habitat health process by opening up to community discussion resulting in educated behavior and choices. The neighboring Apaches, who once called the Gila home, can tell them that in the traditional native way, decisions are made based on the effect they will have for 7 generations. Do we leave ravaged landscapes & sickening air & water for our children, or do we learn the wisdom of wild that sustains us all, along with the ways to live in smarter harmony?
