New conservation plan would increase range, protections for imperiled Mexican gray wolves
The Republic | azcentral.com
Mon Jun 10, 2013
Mexican gray wolves could get more room to roam in Arizona
and New Mexico under proposed federal rule changes, and the government
would protect them with a new classification as an endangered subspecies
of the larger gray-wolf population.
That reclassification is crucial to restoration efforts in the Southwest because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday also proposed removing Endangered Species Act protections from the broader gray-wolf population of the northern Rockies and Great Lakes.
The continuing protections for Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico would include new tolerance for wolves to populate forests as far north as Interstate 40 and as far south as Interstate 10. Their current recovery area is restricted to the Blue Range straddling both states.
“After 15 years of experimenting with Mexican wolf reintroduction, we are now proposing modifications that we believe improve growth and the genetic health of the overall population,” said Benjamin Tuggle, a regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Service.
If approved later this year, the plan also would allow release of captive wolves into New Mexico’s Gila National Forest for the first time. Previously, all releases from captive breeding programs were in Arizona’s Apache National Forest, compressing the zone of new blood and of conflicts. At least 46 wolves have been shot illegally, and most shootings are unsolved.
There were 75 Mexican gray wolves in the wild as of the last census at the end of 2012. They are a smaller relative of the gray wolf, whose numbers have soared into the thousands in the northern United States. In both the northern Rockies and the Southwest, conflicts with livestock led ranchers and government trappers to target the predators during the 20th century.
National conservation groups, including the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife, condemned the move to delist wolves elsewhere, though wolf advocates have both hopes and fears for what the planned changes mean for Mexican wolves.
“This is a very sad day for wolves nationwide,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “For the Mexican wolves, it’s really a mixed bag.”
Expanding the zone of tolerance will help wolves multiply, he said. But the proposal also extends the “experimental” tag to wolves all the way to the Mexican border, opening wolves there to legal shootings or trappings if they chase livestock. Previously, wolves south of I-10 — outside the experimental reintroduction zone — enjoyed full protection, and Robinson thinks they still need it in case any wolves from Mexico migrate north.
Biologists rounded up the last wild Mexican wolves for breeding during the 1980s and started releasing their offspring into eastern Arizona in 1998. The ground available for releases was limited to about a million acres in the Apache National Forest, but the rule change would add about triple that acreage for reintroduction in New Mexico.
Because the government classified these wolves as experimental and restricted them to a core recovery zone, wildlife agents have rounded up wolves that previously established home territories beyond the Blue Range. The new rule, now available for public comment, would tolerate packs between the state’s two major east-west freeways. Theoretically, it means wolves could spread across the Mogollon Rim, for instance.
That’s a maddening thought to hunters, including John Koleszar, vice president of the Arizona Deer Association. There already are too few hunting opportunities, he said, and big-game groups like his donate habitat-enhancement funds to boost herds, not to feed wolves.
“For elk,” he said, “I put in for archery (permits) every year, and I get drawn about every eight years. You’re telling me you want to put another top-line predator all along the Mogollon Rim? It’s wrong.”
Arizona Game and Fish Department officials said Friday that it was premature to respond to the proposal. They work with the Fish and Wildlife Service on wolf restoration. Larry Riley, the department’s assistant director for wildlife management, said that, in general, the state has hoped for more flexibility in both release sites and in removing problem wolves.
“We’re definitely going to be studying on this,” Riley said of the proposed rules. “There are going to be some pluses and minuses.”
source
That reclassification is crucial to restoration efforts in the Southwest because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday also proposed removing Endangered Species Act protections from the broader gray-wolf population of the northern Rockies and Great Lakes.
The continuing protections for Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico would include new tolerance for wolves to populate forests as far north as Interstate 40 and as far south as Interstate 10. Their current recovery area is restricted to the Blue Range straddling both states.
“After 15 years of experimenting with Mexican wolf reintroduction, we are now proposing modifications that we believe improve growth and the genetic health of the overall population,” said Benjamin Tuggle, a regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Service.
If approved later this year, the plan also would allow release of captive wolves into New Mexico’s Gila National Forest for the first time. Previously, all releases from captive breeding programs were in Arizona’s Apache National Forest, compressing the zone of new blood and of conflicts. At least 46 wolves have been shot illegally, and most shootings are unsolved.
There were 75 Mexican gray wolves in the wild as of the last census at the end of 2012. They are a smaller relative of the gray wolf, whose numbers have soared into the thousands in the northern United States. In both the northern Rockies and the Southwest, conflicts with livestock led ranchers and government trappers to target the predators during the 20th century.
National conservation groups, including the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife, condemned the move to delist wolves elsewhere, though wolf advocates have both hopes and fears for what the planned changes mean for Mexican wolves.
“This is a very sad day for wolves nationwide,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “For the Mexican wolves, it’s really a mixed bag.”
Expanding the zone of tolerance will help wolves multiply, he said. But the proposal also extends the “experimental” tag to wolves all the way to the Mexican border, opening wolves there to legal shootings or trappings if they chase livestock. Previously, wolves south of I-10 — outside the experimental reintroduction zone — enjoyed full protection, and Robinson thinks they still need it in case any wolves from Mexico migrate north.
Biologists rounded up the last wild Mexican wolves for breeding during the 1980s and started releasing their offspring into eastern Arizona in 1998. The ground available for releases was limited to about a million acres in the Apache National Forest, but the rule change would add about triple that acreage for reintroduction in New Mexico.
Because the government classified these wolves as experimental and restricted them to a core recovery zone, wildlife agents have rounded up wolves that previously established home territories beyond the Blue Range. The new rule, now available for public comment, would tolerate packs between the state’s two major east-west freeways. Theoretically, it means wolves could spread across the Mogollon Rim, for instance.
That’s a maddening thought to hunters, including John Koleszar, vice president of the Arizona Deer Association. There already are too few hunting opportunities, he said, and big-game groups like his donate habitat-enhancement funds to boost herds, not to feed wolves.
“For elk,” he said, “I put in for archery (permits) every year, and I get drawn about every eight years. You’re telling me you want to put another top-line predator all along the Mogollon Rim? It’s wrong.”
Arizona Game and Fish Department officials said Friday that it was premature to respond to the proposal. They work with the Fish and Wildlife Service on wolf restoration. Larry Riley, the department’s assistant director for wildlife management, said that, in general, the state has hoped for more flexibility in both release sites and in removing problem wolves.
“We’re definitely going to be studying on this,” Riley said of the proposed rules. “There are going to be some pluses and minuses.”
source
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