Staff Report
Many New Mexicans were outraged to learn that the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Arizona Game & Fish Department (AGFD) have entered into a deal to accept an unpublished plan for Mexican wolf management in Arizona and New Mexico, according to Jose Varela Lopez, New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association President, La Cieneguilla.
The Mexican wolf reintroduction has been the subject of great controversy for more than 20 years and has had significant economic impact on rural communities in the reintroduction areas of New Mexico, noted Jack McCormick, Northern New Mexico Safari Club President in Edgewood.
Sources indicate that the deal cut between FWS and AGFD will do the following:
a) A Service commitment of no wolves north of Interstate 40. Wolves that are identified north of I-40 will be trapped and returned to the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area utilizing a 10(a)1(a) permit.
b) An expressed upper population limit in the rule of 300-325 Mexican wolves in NM and AZ. When the population objective of 300-325 is reached, strict removal will be implemented to reduce the population to the maximum of 300-325 individual animals.
c) Mexican wolves would be removed if impacting wild ungulate herds at a rate higher than 15% as determined by the States using state methodologies of population measurement.
d) Zones of occupancy that are similar or the same as proposed by the Arizona Game and Fish Department in their previous comments and alternative.
These items were all contained in an alternative for the EIS from Arizona that wasn’t even published in the EIS, McCormick continued, so members of the public have had no opportunity to review and comment on it.
While the deal will have tremendous impact on New Mexicans and land within New Mexico was included in the alternative developed by the AGFD, the effort had absolutely no support from any New Mexicans, said Kim Talbot, Southern New Mexico Chapter of the Safari Club. The New Mexico Department of Game & Fish withdrew from the wolf program two years ago because it was being run over by the FWS, he said.
A dozen sportsmen and livestock organizations in New Mexico put FWS Director Dan Ashe on notice that the actions of the federal and state agency are pre-decisional and recommended withdrawal of the entire process with a letter on Sept 25.
Since 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and cooperating state, federal and tribal agencies have reintroduced and managed Mexican wolves under a rule designating the U.S. populations as “nonessential, experimental.”
In July, the Service updated its June 2013 proposed revisions to the existing nonessential experimental population designation of the Mexican wolf under the Endangered Species Act to provide additional clarity and flexibility to effectively manage the experimental population in a working landscape. The Service also announced the availability of a draft environmental impact statement (dEIS) on the proposed revisions.
Parts of Cibola County are within the boundaries of the Mexican wolf management plan. The proposed revision includes extending the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area’s (MWEPA) southern boundary from Interstate 40 to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and New Mexico.
To learn more about the proposed rule revision, dEIS, visit http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf/.