Just the Facts ... and Then Some

JUST THE FACTS ... & THEN SOME

by Caren Cowan, Publisher New Mexico Stockman

More Wolf Woes

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) announced its proposed changes to management regulations for Mexican wolves in the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area in Arizona and New Mexico under section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act on October 27, 2021.

This notice came after an unknown number of meetings with agencies and individuals providing the draft rule to them. Ranchers and those most directly by the wolf program were not included in those who received prior notice of the document. Some ranchers learned of the last meeting which was to be held on October 28. When they asked about the meeting and participation in it, they were offered private briefings well after the publication.

According to their notice, the FWS is proposes to modify the population objective, establish a genetic objective and temporarily restrict three allowable forms of take of Mexican wolves in the MWEPA that were established in the 2015 10(j) rule. The proposed changes to the rule will bring the management of the wild population in line with recovery criteria for the species as identified in the 2017 Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, First Revision.

A press release by Michael Robinson with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) also issued on October 27 provides the sordid details of the government’s plan. Referencing a draft notice for the Federal Register, Robinson says that the population cap on the numbers of Mexican wolves allowed to live in the Southwest.

In the 2015 the FWS’s 10(j) rule called for at least 320 wolves in both the Southwestern U.S. and in Mexico with 750 wolves in three separate populations would likely be necessary to achieve range-wide recovery. (https://www.fws.gov/southwest/ es/mexicanwolf/pdf/Mx_wolf_10j_final_ rule_to_OFR.pdf )

“Some speculate that the reason for removing the cap on the wolves,” said Don L. (Bebo) Lee, New Mexico Federal Lands Council President, Alamogordo, “is because the FWS really has no idea how many wolves there are. Although the FWS publishes counts annually of the number of wolves in the Southwest population, they are hardly accurate because they count only wolves that are collared.

“After 23 years of the program,” he explained, “scientists are now telling us that the wolf population is expanding. Ranchers confirm that information with the amount of livestock and pets that are being killed. Anonymous sources tell us that FWS employees have also made such statements.”

Robinson also reports that the proposed rule could also temporarily curtail some of the circumstances under which federal, state and private killing of wolves is allowed, even before the population reaches 320 animals. The proposed rule would also bar state game agencies from killing wolves under the rationale of protecting elk, deer or pronghorn, if the numbers of surviving

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cross-fostered animals were to fall below projections, Robinson wrote.

Scientists, including members of the Mexican wolf recovery team, have found that recovery requires additional wolf populations in areas north of that boundary, including the southern Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon, Robinson continued.

The proposal was published in the Federal Register (docket # FWS–R2–ES–2021–0103) on October 29th. The public has 90 days to review and comment on the proposal with comments due on or before January 27, 2022.

The FWS will hold one virtual information session on November 18th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time to answer questions on the proposed rule revision. There will be two additional virtual information sessions followed by public hearings on December 8th and January 11th to gather public comments for the record. On both dates a public information session will take place from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time, followed by a public hearing from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

While now there is a relatively small number of ranchers suffering tremendous wolf losses, the wolves are a problem for every rancher. The ranching community must band together to submit comments and fight back against these new regulations.

Draft comments will be prepared by the Arizona / New Mexico Coalition of Counties, the New Mexico Federal Lands Council, Protect Americans Now and other groups to assist in providing comments. Watch your email for the coming drafts. ▫

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