Scott Turner
El Defensor Chieftain managing editor
The Socorro County Board of Commissioners is doing what it can to prevent the release of wolves by the federal government within the county’s borders.
The commissioners passed a resolution at their Tuesday meeting opposing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wolf Recovery Program.
The vote came after an Oct. 1 meeting at the Forest Service office in Magdalena attended by Commissioners Martha Salas and Juan Gutierrez, and County Attorney Adren Nance.
Salas said the only person at the meeting supporting the release of the wolves was a person involved in the program.
“A lot of our constituents were very angry,” Salas said.
In addition to passing the resolution expressing their opposition to the release of the wolves in the county, the commissioners also approved the publication of a proposed ordinance that would make it illegal to release wolves on ranch land in Socorro County.
Nance said the ordinance would re-enforce where the Board of Commissioners stood on the release of the wolves in the county, but said there would be some questions about whether or not the ordinance could be enforced on federal land.
A public hearing would be held before the commissioners vote on the ordinance. The hearing, Nance said, would give residents a chance to voice their opinions about the release of the wolves.
The Fish and Wildlife Service finalized changes in January to the Mexican
Wolf Experimental Population Rule in Arizona and New Mexico, enlarging the recovery area from Interstate 10 to the Mexican Border, and a tenfold increase in the area where Mexican wolves can initially be released from captivity.
Commissioners said the expanded reintroduction and release area includes several parts of Socorro County.
The resolution passed by board states the “Fish & Wildlife Service has not sufficiently considered our customs, culture, and the economy of our county.”
The resolution supports the New Mexico Game Commission’s September vote to uphold Game and Fish Department Director Alexandra Sandoval’s denial of Fish and Wildlife’s release request to release additional wolves in New Mexico based on the fact the Department did not know how many wolves would be released or where they would be set loose.
The Fish and Wildlife services proposed numerous potential wolf release sights in Socorro County on Oct. 1.
The resolution requests that the state’s congressional delegation call for an investigation and defund the wolf recovery program.