NM conservationists intervene in wolf lawsuit
By: Charlie Pabst, KOB.com
SILVER CITY, N.M. (AP) – Conservation groups on Friday filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit by ranching groups and two southern New Mexico counties over a program that’s reintroducing endangered Mexican gray wolves into the wild in New Mexico and Arizona.
The lawsuit filed in August alleges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish violated the National Environmental Policy Act by altering the program’s rules without an environmental review.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife say the lawsuit lacks merit.
They contend it’s aimed at undermining a 2009 settlement with the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Among other things, the settlement ended a rule that required trapping or shooting any wolf linked to three livestock killings in a year.