Las Cruces wolf forum looks to history for answers
(Las Cruces-AP) — The US Fish and Wildlife
Service plans to release four packs of Mexican gray wolves in New Mexico and Arizona
this year to increase genetic diversity of the species in the wild.
Biologist
Dan Stark says it will likely be the last large release effort because of the
success of the project.
People who revile wolves met with those who revere
them this weekend as parties from both sides of the issue looked at environmental
history to find insight to the debate over the wolf reintroduction program in
the Southwest.
The wolves, which once roamed in a broad region from Mexico
to the Southwest United States, have largely vanished from the region.
The
wolf was reintroduced into eastern New Mexico and western Arizona in 1998 after
nearly 30 years’ absence from the wild.
Reintroduction efforts have so
far produced a mixed bag of results. Wildlife department biologists say reproduction
in the wild is going well, while ranchers bemoan destruction of cattle and environmentalists
argue in favor of more freedom for the packs.
Speakers at the forum advocated
allowing wolves to naturally establish territory outside their designated recovery
area.