Enviros ask for relocation of problem wolves
By Tom Jackson King, Managing Editor
A coalition of 15 environmental groups has appealed to Secretary of the
Interior Gale Norton to reverse the “shoot on sight” order for two Mexican
gray wolves recently given by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Sandy Bahr, spokesperson for the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club,
told the Eastern Arizona Courier “to kill these wolves is really the wrong
way to go — these wolves are not expendable.”
Bahr said her group was one of the 15 that appealed to Norton in a Dec. 5
letter.
“Yes, we have asked the Secretary of the Interior to intervene and stop
the killing of these wolves. We think it is unwarranted and unwise. It is
likely these are wildborn wolves, so they are significant,” she said.
“The wolves need to be allowed to be on the ground and live in the wild.
Preying on livestock is going to happen from time to time. If the wolves
have been preying on livestock, they (local ranchers) should be
compensated by the Defenders of Wildlife program,” Bahr said.
“It’s disturbing Brian Kelly has so cavalier an attitude toward the
wolves. Why aren’t they looking at relocation instead of extermination?”
Kelly is the wolf program coordinator for USFWS. He issued the “shoot on
sight” order to field personnel now active in Apache National Forest based
on a documented record of five kills of livestock belonging to the 4 Drag
Ranch of Gary and Darcy Ely of Upper Eagle Creek. Kelly said he was just
carrying out the promises made to local ranchers by the USFWS and the
final EIS document.
“We have that option in the reintroduction rule. The guidance is to shoot
them on sight if they can find them. Even though the parties have agreed
to this, it may or may not come to fruition,” Kelly said.
He explained that capturing the two wolves, one of which is wearing a
radio locator collar, is very difficult due to the rugged terrain of the
Upper Eagle Creek area. He also said the two wolves were very wary of
humans.
“It’s very hard to get them. They are pretty wild by their behavior. They
have been living out there for a few years,” Kelly said.
Steve Capra, spokesperson for the New Mexico Wilder-ness Alliance, one of
the 15 signers of the letter to Norton, said, “Ranchers have a right to
make a living. Ranchers pay for the right to use public lands. But public
lands are not there just for the ranchers. It’s for people to enjoy
recreation.
“They are not using sound science,” he said of the decision to kill the
two wolves because of repeated cattle attacks. “The Bush administration,
they tend to shoot first and ask questions later.”
The letter to Norton was signed by Friends of the Wild Rivers, Arizona
Wilderness Coalition, Animal Protection of New Mexico, Center for
Biological Diversity, Christians Caring for Creation, Fund for Animals,
The Humane Society of the United States, Phoenix Zoo and Arizona
Zoological Society, Sky Island Alliance, The Wildlands Project, Forest
Guardians, Gila Watch, Audubon New Mexico, Sierra Club and Southwest
Environ-mental Center.
The letter points out the current population levels of the endangered
Mexican gray wolf subspecies are still too low to permit intentional
killing of animals.
“The 1996 Mexican gray wolf reintroduction final environmental impact
statement predicted 45 wolves in the wild by the end of this year, while
only 37 animals, including observed wild-born animals that have no radio
collars, are documented in the most recent program field notes of the
USFWS,” the letter said.
“The reintroduction program is intended to correct an historic mistake and
save a endangered species and the ecosystems of which it is a part. The
Mexican wolf is the engine of evolution for Southwestern ecosystems,
contributing to the strength and vigor of elk, the alertness of deer, the
agility and sense of balance of bighorn sheep, and the speed and keen
eyesight of pronghorn antelope,” the group claimed.
“Since the depredations do not represent an economic burden to the owners
of the cattle killed, and since livestock husbandry practices in the
region may well have contributed to the current depredations, the
government should be erring on the side of the wolves,” the letter states.
The claim that livestock owners have contributed to the problem of wolves
killing cattle is based on the assertion by some environmentalists that
when ranchers leave naturally dead cattle on rented federal land, they are
training wolves to like cattle by allowing wolves to scavenge on dead
cattle.
Jeff Menges, president of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association, says the
history of wolf attacks on several ranch herds in Apache National Forest
is indeed harming the economic survival of those ranchers.
“They’re feeding on cattle, not on elk and deer,” Menges said.
“The whole wolf program below the rim, those wolves are just eating
livestock and very little else. The position of the cattle growers
association is the wolves below the rim should be removed. The experiment
isn’t working,” he said.
As of press time, there was no word that USFWS personnel had found and
shot the two targeted wolves.