Commentary by Michael Robinson

The Albuquerque Tribune

Albuquerque, New Mexico

http://www.abqtrib.com

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On the sixth anniversary of the first release of endangered Mexican gray wolves into the wild on March 29, 1998, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal petition for rule-making with Interior Secretary Gale Norton and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams to save the Mexican wolf population from federal mismanagement.

The 14-page petition was filed pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act, which gives the federal government 90 days for an initial response and one year to promulgate new regulations. Should these deadlines be missed, the center will sue to compel compliance.

The petition requests reforms in the reintroduction program in accordance with recommendations of four independent scientists who examined the program at the behest of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

In June 2001, the scientists issued an 86-page report urging immediate policy changes.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has not made the changes.

The scientists said, absent such changes, wolf numbers stood a 39 percent chance of decline. At the time they issued their report, there were 27 radio-collared and monitored wolves in the wild, plus an unknown number of uncollared wolves.

Today there are 18 radio-collared and monitored wolves in the wild, and that number includes nine wild-born wolves captured in the interim and outfitted with collars before release.

The center's petition requests three changes in policy:

That the Fish and Wildlife Service be allowed to release wolves from the captive breeding program into the Gila National Forest of New Mexico. Currently, wolves can be captured from the wild and released in the Gila but are not released there for the first time. Animals born into the captive breeding program may only be released their first time into the Apache National Forest in Arizona. Wolves are sometimes injured, traumatized or even killed in capture attempts, and survivors are much less likely to live and reproduce upon release.

That the Fish and Wildlife Service be given the authority to allow wolves to establish territories outside the boundaries of the Gila and Apache national forests. Currently, Fish and Wildlife is required to remove or kill such wolves, even if they are on other public lands. Fish and Wildlife is not required to remove any other endangered species merely for living outside a political boundary. For example, wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains can move at will unless they are causing a specific problem.

That owners of livestock be required to take responsibility for removing or rendering unpalatable the carcasses of cattle and horses that die of non-wolf-related problems, before wolves scavenge on them and become habituated to livestock -- or if they fail to do so that the wolves are not subsequently made into scapegoats. In the northern Rocky Mountains, regulations protect wolves from being baited by carcasses, but not in the Southwest.

The Mexican gray wolf is the most imperiled mammal in North America, exterminated from the United States by the 1920s by the predecessor agency to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and then beginning in 1950 poisoned out of Mexico by the Fish and Wildlife Service as well.

After passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 in order to recover threaten and endangered species and the ecosystems upon which they depend, the last five known wild wolves were captured alive in Mexico for an emergency captive breeding program. After the Fish and Wildlife Service attempted to scuttle reintroduction, conservationists sued the agency and in 1993 obtained a settlement agreement that eventually led to the first 11 wolves being released six years ago today.

Mexican gray wolves are the engine of evolution for Southwestern ecosystems. Research from other ecosystems indicates wolves play key roles in: honing the alertness and vigor of prey species such as elk, deer, pronghorn and bighorn sheep; preventing disease transmission by killing prey animals weakened by severe maladies before other herd members become infected; providing carrion for scavenger animals such as badgers, eagles, ravens and bears; helping foxes survive by killing coyotes, which in turn kill foxes and limit their numbers; and helping natural vegetation flourish by limiting the time spent by grazing and browsing animals in sensitive streamside areas.

In sum, there are a host of ecological adaptations in which wolves play key roles. Their elimination was part of a process of thoughtlessly crippling natural ecosystems, and their successful reintroduction is critical to restoring the balance.

Copies of the petition are available on request. Contact the Center for Biological Diversity by writing P.O. Box 53166, Pinos Altos, N.M. 88053; phoning or faxing 505-534-0360; or visiting its Web site at www.biologicaldiversity.org.

Robinson, based in Pinos Altos, N.M., is an official with the Center for Biological Diversity, a national nonprofit organization that was founded in rural southwestern New Mexico in 1989.

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