Wolf Crossing

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_15789472

›› Previous: Wolves fight to survive: Predators’ reintroduction angers New Mexico ranchers

EL PASO — Should ranchers have access to the technology that allows humans to track endangered Mexican gray wolves?

One advocacy group says no, given that the number of Mexican wolves living in the wild in the Southwest has dropped from 42 to 39 in recent weeks.

Radio-telemetry receivers used by ranchers to track Mexican wolves in New Mexico and Arizona should be returned to federal wildlife authorities, according to the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, which is worried about illegal killings of the vanishing predator.

“In addition, the government should assume the wolves’ radio-collar frequencies have been compromised and should change the frequencies to prevent any tracking of the wolves via privately owned telemetry receivers,” wrote Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. Robinson’s letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was the center’s second effort in a little more than two years to have the equipment returned.

Ranchers, though, say they use the equipment to locate dead cattle, not to hunt wolves.

Finding the location of a collared wolf with the receiver is not an exact science, said Laura Schneberger, who has a ranch on the north edge of New Mexico’s Gila National Forest,

where Mexican wolves are trying to establish packs. Schneberger, president of the Gila Livestock Growers, said the receivers have been used on her ranch.

“If you are on a ranch with 42 square miles, you’re going to need that monitor,” Schneberger said. “It will get you in that general area, then you look for buzzards. You use it to make sure the wolves are out of the cows. They (wolves) know you’re coming way before you get there and find what they’ve been eating.”

Robinson, who works out of the center’s Silver City office, said the receivers can be used to pinpoint the wolves.

Continued at above link….

Share on Facebook

Posted at: 08/24/2010 11:46 AM
By: SUE MAJOR HOLMES, Associated Press Writer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Ranching groups and two southern New Mexico counties are suing over a program that’s reintroducing Mexican gray wolves into the wild in New Mexico and Arizona.

Their lawsuit alleges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Department of Game and Fish have violated federal law by altering program rules without a new environmental review.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to stop the changes until the agencies comply with the law.

It was filed by Americans for the Preservation of the Western Environment, the Adobe and Beaverhead ranches; rancher Alan Tackman; the Gila National Forest Livestock Permittees’ Association, and the Otero and Catron county commissions.

Their attorney, Daniel Bryant, says people in the wolf release area haven’t had an adequate voice.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

Governor Bill Richardson Orders Temporary Trapping Ban to Protect the Mexican Gray Wolf

Ban Limited to Portion of Blue Range Recovery Area

SANTA FE – Governor Bill Richardson today ordered a six-month ban on trapping in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area in an effort to protect the Mexican Gray Wolves that have been reintroduced to the New Mexico portion of the Gila and Apache National Forests.

Governor Richardson directed the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish to initiate the temporary trapping ban, while it conducts a study on trapping to determine the level of risk to the Mexican Gray Wolf associated with the various traps and snares.

“The indiscriminate traps and snares in the Recovery Area are harming efforts to reintroduce the Mexican Gray Wolf to its native habitat,” Governor Richardson. “I am ordering this temporary ban to protect the wolves and increase the likelihood for the wolves to survive and flourish.”

Governor Richardson signed the following Executive Order today, directing the ban:

EXECUTIVE ORDER 2010-029

TEMPORARY BAN OF TRAPPING IN THE
BLUE RANGE WOLF RECOVERY AREA

WHEREAS, the Mexican Gray Wolf is the smallest, rarest, and most genetically distinct subspecies of the Gray Wolf;

WHEREAS, the Mexican Gray Wolves that once widely roamed New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and the Republic of Mexico are now nearly extinct, suffering from the results of human development, reduction in habitat, and hunting;

WHEREAS, the Mexican Gray Wolf was listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1976, and all known wild Mexican Gray Wolves were caught and put into a captive breeding program;

WHEREAS, the Gray Wolf species, of which the Mexican Gray Wolf is a subspecies, was listed as endangered under the New Mexico Wildlife Conservation Act in 1976;

WHEREAS, in 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced the Mexican Gray Wolf to a portion of its historic range in New Mexico and Arizona within the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area (“Recovery Area”), which is comprised of the Gila and Apache National Forests;

WHEREAS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s goal was to restore at least 100 free-roaming Mexican Gray Wolves in the Recovery Area by 2005, but as of 2010, only 39 individual Mexican Gray Wolves are surviving in the wild;

WHEREAS, pursuant to the New Mexico Wildlife Conservation Act, the State Game Commission has enacted rules which make it unlawful for any person to take (defined as harass, hunt, capture, kill, or attempt to do so) any threatened or endangered species or subspecies in the State of New Mexico;

WHEREAS, under the New Mexico Wildlife Conservation Act endangered species may only be removed, captured, or destroyed with prior authorization by permit given by the Director of the Department of Game and Fish (“Department”) where necessary to alleviate or prevent damage to property or to protect human health;

WHEREAS, trapping and snaring activities occur in New Mexico within the Recovery Area even though such activities are negatively impacting the Mexican Gray Wolf, as traps and snares do not discriminate between Mexican Gray Wolves and the game animals intended to be taken;

WHEREAS, Mexican Gray Wolves may suffer injury or death while caught in a trap or snare due to dehydration, exposure to weather, or predation by other animals;

WHEREAS, in the last eight years, in the Recovery Area located in New Mexico, there have been six confirmed and three probable Mexican Gray Wolves that have been trapped, five of which have sustained injuries from traps or snares, including two Mexican Gray Wolves that had injuries severe enough to result in leg amputations;

WHEREAS, missing toes, claws, or other injuries can inhibit the Mexican Gray Wolves’ ability to catch prey and may actually increase the risk of livestock predation, as domestic livestock are easier to capture than native prey such as elk or mule deer;

WHEREAS, Mexican Gray Wolves require adequate prey and freedom from indiscriminate traps and snares to thrive in the Recovery Area; and

WHEREAS, tourism for watching the Mexican Gray Wolf has had almost no chance to develop in New Mexico, because the Mexican Gray Wolf population has not grown as planned.

NOW THEREFORE, I Bill Richardson, Governor of the State of New Mexico, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the State of New Mexico, do hereby order the Department of Game and Fish to carry out the purpose of the New Mexico Wildlife Conservation Act, which requires endangered species, including the Mexican Gray Wolf, be protected and direct the Department of Game and Fish to temporarily ban trapping in the portion of the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area located in New Mexico. The ban shall:

1. Prohibit trapping by persons licensed to trap pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 17-5-5 and youth under the age of twelve years. This prohibition should not affect the right of a resident to trap animals in order to protect livestock, domesticated animals, or fowl. The ban shall be in effect for six months starting on November 1, 2010, while the two studies described below are completed.

2. Prohibit all methods of capturing a furbearer on land or in water, including leg-hold traps, neck and leg snares, Conibear kill traps, body-crushing traps, natural and man-made cubby sets, and other methods of trapping specified in 19.32.2.10 NMAC. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and the government of the United States and its agencies are exempted from this closure if the Mexican Gray Wolves require capture for medical treatment, monitoring, or relocation.

I further direct the Department to undertake a study of the various types of traps and snares allowed in New Mexico and to determine the level of risk to the Mexican Gray Wolf associated with the various traps and snares. The Department shall then pursue appropriate regulations to allow trapping within the Recovery Area only by use of traps and snares that pose minimal risk of harm or injury to the Mexican Gray Wolf.

I further direct the Department of Tourism to undertake a study on the potential economic benefits of ecotourism related to recovery of the Mexican Gray Wolf in the Recovery Area.

THIS ORDER supersedes any other previous orders, proclamations, or directives in conflict. This Executive Order shall take effect immediately and shall remain in effect until such time as it is rescinded by the Governor.

#30#

Share on Facebook

http://azstarnet.com/news/science/environment/article_24e57a2a-492b-5adf-8ed8-d5940a1bc277.html

Gray wolf shot in AZ; officials probe use of radio tracking

Another endangered Mexican gray wolf was found shot to death this week in Arizona - and one of the possibilities authorities are looking into is that ranchers or others may have used radios to track and target radio-collared wolves.

Environmentalists are pushing the feds - “as a precaution” - to take back the radios loaned to ranchers and others in Arizona and New Mexico that allow the wolves to be tracked.

Ranching groups deny the “ridiculous” suggestion that any ranchers would use the radios to target wolves for shootings. They say they only monitor the wolves to try to keep them from attacking their cattle or getting too close to homes.

Agents for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have drawn no conclusions as to whether the receivers are being used to target wolves, said Nicholas Chavez, the service’s Southwest law enforcement chief.

“We put everything into the realm of possibility. We always look into that but we have not confirmed that at all,” said Chavez, whose agents have investigated more than 30 Mexican wolf shootings.

The radios are loaned to two groups of people: those wishing to protect livestock against wolf attacks and those wishing to protect their property against nuisance wolves, says a document written by officials with the federal wolf reintroduction project.

The latest dead male wolf, a yearling, was found Thursday near Big Lake, in Eastern Arizona, about two miles from where an adult alpha male from the same pack - the Hawks Nest Pack - was found shot to death June 18.

On June 24, another adult alpha male - the leader of its pack - was found dead in southern New Mexico under “suspicious circumstances.” Authorities won’t know if that one was shot to death until a necropsy is done.

The latest wolf to be found dead had a bullet wound, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman, Tom Buckley, said Friday.

“It’s a tremendous hit” to the recovery program, he said. Thirty-three wolves have been shot to death since wolves were first reintroduced into Arizona and New Mexico in 1998.

At about the same time this wolf was found, authorities found a cow shot to death in an area close by. The cow also died of a gunshot wound, sometime during the preceding 24 hours, and was not fed upon by wolves, the wildlife service investigation indicates.

The wolf death leaves the Hawks Nest pack with two females - an adult and a yearling - to care for seven pups born to the pack this spring, Buckley said. The outlook isn’t good for the adults to find enough food for the pups, said Bruce Sitko, an Arizona Game and Fish Department official in Pinetop. “Taking the alpha male out is a blow. Taking two of four adults out is really hard,” said Sitko.

Also on Friday, 16 environmental groups released a letter they had sent last month to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, urging that the wildlife service take back the radios capable of tracking the radio-collared wolves that the agency has loaned cattle ranchers for years. The environmentalists said the radios make the wolves vulnerable to poaching. Salazar’s office hasn’t yet responded to the letter.

“Given the high rate of illegal shooting of Mexican wolves, as well as the large number of wolves disappearing under suspicious circumstances, wolf-frequency-programmed receivers should only be in the hands of government employees responsible for protecting and recovering the wolves, and in the hands of scientists studying them,” said the letter.

The letter cites one case linking the use of a radio to a wolf death. It recounted a 2007 article in the environmental magazine High Country News that quoted a Southwest New Mexico rancher as saying he tracked a wolf down with a receiver. The rancher was quoted as saying - a quote he later denied making - that he then branded cattle less than a half-mile from a wolf den, to lure a wolf to come after a cow. Federal authorities then shot the wolf at the rancher’s behest. The wolf, which had previously eaten two cattle, ate two more, which under federal rules allowed the animal to be shot by authorities.

The Arizona and New Mexico Cattle Growers associations say there is no evidence of a rancher ever killing a wolf. To say that the radios should be seized, “I find that ridiculous,” said Caren Cowan, director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association.

While New Mexico ranchers have opposed the wolf program, the Arizona group says its members are as upset as anyone at the latest death.

As for the radios, “Very few of our ranchers have them in hand,” said Patrick Bray, executive vice president of the Arizona cattlemen’s group. “They normally only use them during the release period, when a pack is first introduced into an area, so they can properly manage that pack to keep them away from homes.”

Contact reporter Tony Davis at tdavis@azstarnet.com or 806-7746.

Share on Facebook