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Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com

AZ: USFW pulls up Gray Wolf stake in Mohave County

By JAYNE HANSON, TODAY’S NEWS-HERALD

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that they’re pulling out of Mohave County when it comes to surveying it for a potential Mexican Gray Wolf Management area.

The USFW recently included the county in a Preliminary Draft Environmental Assessment, or PDEA, for proposed implementation of a Southwestern Gray Wolf Management Plan slotted for selected areas of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

According to documents obtained by Today’s News-Herald, USFW has withdrawn its request for counties and tribes within the three management zones in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to respond with comments by April 1.

The purpose for the proposed management plan was to identify management options for wolves that naturally dispersed into those areas from Mexico to the Northern Rocky Mountains.

“While we greatly appreciate the cooperation of the agencies, counties, and tribes that already provided both formal and informal input, we are no longer soliciting comments on the action,” the USFW letter stated.

The USFW recently requested comments from agencies and tribes in three Southwest states to help compile the PDEA. The proposed project’s goal was to identify areas of management and reintroduction sites for the wolves into Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

“I believe this is a step in the right direction,” said Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson, R-Dist. 3, in a prepared statement. “Arizona depends on cattle ranching, hunting and tourism to bring jobs and economic growth to the state.”

Similar wolf reintroduction programs have cost other states millions of dollars in economic growth, he said.

“To save a species, I have no problem with it, but there’s no clear direction or clear rules,” Johnson said Monday. “It’s really not about protecting the desert tortoise, or protecting the wolves. They start a program with no idea how to implement it. The plan is put in place, but it’s never updated and never evaluated. And there is no follow up as to say they spent this amount of money with no proven result.”

In February, Mohave County Supervisors unanimously voted to direct staff to compile comments for the PDEA. The majority of the Board expressed their opposition to reintroduction that day.

“We will be keeping a watchful eye on this in case it comes back up,” Johnson said in a prepared statement. “If it does, we will take the necessary steps needed. There are enough problems in Mohave County with coyotes and (wild) burros to keep us busy.”

In January, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission voted to amend the Mexican wolf release policy when it comes to population losses. The amendment allows the commission authority to approve or deny the replacement of lost wolves on a case-by-case basis, according to AZGFD.

The last initial release of wolves occurred in 2008. Since the wolf introduction project officially began in 1982, there have been 19 releases that have occurred with the commission’s support. All of those were released in eastern Arizona for the Arizona-New Mexico population.

According to the USFW website, the wolves can be killed if found in the act of killing or injuring livestock while on private or tribal lands. The kills must be reported within 24 hours. But it is illegal to kill wolves if they do the same on public land. Fines reach as much as $50,000 and penalties include up to one year of imprisonment.

The Mexican Wolf Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area notes its primary recovery zone in Eastern Arizona, in the Apache National Forest. The secondary recovery zones reach well into New Mexico with the area situated largely in that state. The Fort Apache Indian Reservation is immediately west of the secondary zone. The project’s experimental population boundaries span from Arizona’s western border to New Mexico’s eastern border, and from U.S. I-40 to the north, to I-10 south, including El Paso, Texas.

At this time, there are 75 wolves reported living in the WBRWR area, 37 are in Arizona. The project began in 1998 with a population of four wolves. Reports show that in the project’s 15 years, wolf populations in Arizona were slightly higher than that of New Mexico, except in 2006 and 2012. In 2012, three breeding pairs were noted, which is a 50 percent decrease from 2011 when six breeding pairs were reported.

In 15 years, there have been 92 documented wolf deaths. Data show 50 percent of those deaths were attributed to illegal shootings; 15 percent to vehicle collisions; and 18 percent to natural deaths, according to the USFW website.

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