DAILY LOBO
UNIVERSIT
MARCH 16, 2011
new mexico
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Staff report
news@dailylobo.com Susan Montoya Bryan / AP Photo In this photo from Dec. 2011, a female Mexican gray wolf looks to avoid being captured for her annual vaccinations and medical checkup at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico. Biologists are trying to tap into the biological avoidance response in Mexican gray wolves so they will steer clear of livestock.
by Susan Montoya Bryan The Associated Press
The reintroduction of Mexican gray wolves to a mountain range just south of the U.S.-Mexico border as part of an effort to re-establish the endangered species is off to a rocky start. Correspondence between Mexican wildlife officials and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed Tuesday that four out of the five wolves released by Mexico’s Environment Department last October are dead from poisoning. Despite the deaths, supporters of wolf reintroduction in the American Southwest are still hoping releases in Mexico can provide a genetic boost to a small population of wolves in New Mexico and Arizona. “They’ve been working for decades for this reintroduction so obviously this is setback, but my assumption and hope is that they will continue and make it successful,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, an American group that has supported returning
the wolves to their historic range. The Mexican agency that oversees that country’s natural resources and the environment released three female wolves — ages 11, 4 and 3 — and two 3-year-old male wolves in Sonora’s San Luis Mountains in early October. The wolves went through rehabilitation in northern Mexico and were fitted with GPS collars so they could be tracked. Mexico’s reintroduction effort has been 20 years in the making. A release of captive wolves into the wild was first proposed in 2009 but faced delays. As for the poisoned wolves, Mexican officials said one was found in November and the other three in December. Necropsies were done on all four animals and results in each case were positive for warfarin, a blood thinner that’s commonly used in rat poison and pesticide. It was unclear whether the warfarin was set out intentionally for the wolves. Mexican officials did not provide any details about how the poison was consumed, and law enforcement
agents were investigating. The surviving female wolf is continuing to feed on rabbits and rodents in the area, officials said. Similar reintroduction work in the U.S. started in 1998, but that program has been hampered by court battles, disputes between ranchers and environmentalists, livestock depredations and illegal shootings. In the first year, five of the 13 wolves released in the U.S. were shot. Now, there are at least 58 wolves in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico — more wolves than in each of the past five years. Mexican officials have a recovery plan for the species and intend to carry on with the program, said Sherry Barrett, director of the Mexican gray wolf program in the U.S. “Any time we have this type of problem, we’re disappointed,” she said Tuesday of the wolf deaths in Mexico. “But it’s not insurmountable.” Neither Mexico nor the U.S. has announced any specific plans for future releases to bolster their wild wolf populations.
UNM Accountant Clifford Roudabush died on campus Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack. Roudabush has worked for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department since 1997. His coworkers knew him as a kind, hardworking and humble man, said Luke Lester, professor and interim chair of the department. “He was a lynch pin in running our department from an accounting point of view, and he was a great guy,” Lester said. “He was kind and always had a positive point of view and was very patient with staff and students. He knew everything there was to know about his position and about (highly technical) UNM policies.” Editorial technician Chuck Reuben has worked with Roudabush since he joined the department in 2005. Reuben said the sudden death has been difficult for the department.
see Roudabush PAGE 3
Los Alamos labs anticipate budget, staff cuts by Jeri Clausing
The Associated Press
The nation’s premier nuclear facility unveiled plans Tuesday to shed as many as 800 employees, or nearly 10 percent of its regular permanent workforce, as it faces a $300 million budget cut this year and the prospect of continued reductions. Los Alamos National Laboratory said it has submitted a plan to reduce its regular full-time staff of 7,585 by between 400 and 800 this spring through “a voluntary separation program.”
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It also employs more than 3,000 contractors, students and other lab workers but they would not be affected “at this time,” a spokeswoman said. Lab Director Charlie McMillan said plans to offer voluntary buyouts are part of “an attempt to reduce the risks of involuntary layoffs.” He appointed a committee to look for savings last year after Congress cut the lab’s budget to $2.2 billion from $2.5 billion. “When combined with a suppressed attrition rate for the past three years, our current budget and
future outlook require significant cost-cutting,” he said in a statement. The plan must be approved by the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nation’s nuclear facilities. The announcement came after the Obama administration announced last week that it planned to defer for at least five years construction of a controversial $6 billion plutonium research lab at Los Alamos. Construction had been expected to begin this year on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility.
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County officials said they were told the deferment would result in a loss of 1,000 planned construction jobs. “It’s disappointing because last year we were told that these missions were key to the defense of our country,” said Sharon Stover, chairwoman of the Los Alamos County Council. “I’m not sure what’s changed in the last few months, but we have a delegation that is going to D.C. next month … We hope our congressional leaders can get us some answers and reverse the trend.”
U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said he was concerned about the impact that budget cuts would have at the lab. “LANL is critical to our national security and state’s economy and I will continue to push for adequate funding at both of New Mexico’s national labs,” Udall said in a statement. Watchdog groups, however, said the cuts were good news. “The post-Cold War nuclear weapons missions at LANL have
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