by Bob Berwyn
Feds back away from plan to capture wolves that cross the border from Mexico
By Summit Voice
SUMMIT COUNTY — Wolves crossing the border from Mexico into the southwestern U.S. won’t be trapped and held in captivity, at least for now.
According the Center for Biological Diversity, TheU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has rescinded a permit it had granted itself and other federal and state agencies to trap wolves that cross into Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico.
The agency hasn’t made a formal announcement, but contacted attorneys for the environmental groups, said Michael Robinson, a wolf conservation advocated with the Center for Biological Diversity.
The federal about-face came just a few weeks after a legal challenge by conservation advocates, who claimed that the USFWS failed to follow required environmental laws when it issued the permit.
The take permit would have authorized federal agencies to trap and keep wolves in captivity indefinitely, even though by law those wolves should be fully protected under the Endangered Species Act.
“We’re glad the government rescinded this permit, which would have damaged prospects of real recovery for Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest and Mexico,” Robinson said. “The fact is that this permit should never have been on the books in the first place. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service never provided an opportunity for public comment on this permit and never bothered to publicly disclose it until after our legal challenge.”
The agency authorized the take permit a month after Mexico initiated a wolf-reintroduction program in October 2011. The U.S.-run Mexican wolf-reintroduction program in Arizona and New Mexico — which is about 100 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border — allows capture as well as shooting of wolves under some circumstances.
The United States and Mexico established a bi-national captive breeding program with several wolves trapped in Mexico between 1977 and 1980. The purpose of the breeding program was to save the species from absolute extinction and to provide animals for future reintroduction to the wild.
The Mexican gray wolf recovery program has faced several other legal challenges recently, as conservation advocates have gone to court to try and force the USFWS to release more captive wolves to bolster the population.
Politically, the agency is trying to balance that pressure with resistance from some local residents and governments, who question the authority of the federal government at a fundamental level, and who don’t want wolves on the landscape.
Federal biologists are cautiously optimistic that recent increases in wolf numbers are edging the population toward targets spelled out in a recovery plan. Wolves in New Mexico and Arizona are designated as a “Nonessential Experimental Population,” which allows for greater management flexibility to address conflict situations, such as livestock depredations or nuisance behavior, than if wolves had retained the fully endangered designation.
The Final Rule provides regulations for how the reintroduced population will be managed by responsible agencies, and further, spells out public rights with respect to human safety and protection of property from Mexican wolves on private, tribal, and public lands. A copy of the Final Rule can be down-loaded from the USFWS website.