Wolf project tries to be objective with review
By John Kamin, assistant editor
State and federal employees with the Mexican Gray Wolf Reintroduction Project are working to finish a five-year review of the project before the end of 2004.
Terry Johnson, the nongame coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, said officials are striving for an objective report. The report will feature different components of the program and will include a technical review, an administrative review and a socioeconomic review.
A Fish and Wildlife Service Web site said project coordinators agreed that a three-year review and five-year review would be conducted “to determine whether the program should continue, continue with modification, or be terminated.”
“One of the criticisms in the past is that they’ve (sub-contractors) often been contracted out to an East Coast,” Johnson said during a recent meeting in Morenci. This time around, the project will consider Southwestern universities to help conduct portions of the review.
Colleen Buchanan, Fish and Wildlife Service’s assistant coordinator for the wolf recovery program, said a local sub-contractor will help conduct the socioeconomic impact. Both the three-year and five-year reviews were never intended to be outside reviews, she said; but this portion will be contracted because of the federal government’s lack of expertise in socioeconomic studies.
“It is being contracted out for the simple fact that we’re not qualified to do the socioeconomic impact,” Buchanan said during the Morenci meeting. This part of the review will feature a cost-benefit analysis, whether the agencies are effectively cooperating with the public, how to maximize benefits and minimize costs, and the best ways to measure trends in communities affected by the project.
Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity requested that the subcontractor not have “a record of fighting against endangered species recovery programs.” Project officials assured him that they would choose a contractor without a bias.
The five-year review will feature a technical component that will compare the project’s progress with projections found in the Environmental Impact Survey. Biological and technical recommendations made in the three-year review’s Paquet Report will also be studied.
The Paquet Report is an independent scientific assessment chartered by the government as part of the three-year review. It is named after world-renowned wolf expert Dr. Paul Paquet.
The Interagency Field Team will perform this portion under the direction of the project’s leaders, coordinators and the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Region 2 science advisor.
The Interagency Field Team monitors and manages the wolves’ movement on the ground.
An administrative component will also be featured in the review. This portion will be performed by an Adaptive Management Oversight Committee.
It includes evaluation of administrative questions in the Mexican Wolf Interagency Plan and an evaluation of organizational recommendations from the three-year review’s Paquet Report. The committee will also review recommendations comprised after Arizona and New Mexico study the three-year review.