(Note: It is not only the wolves, last summer USFWS were going to file charges against a rancher because one of his employees shot a lynx that was attacking the ranchers sheep. The action was dropped by the agency when the Mountain States Legal Foundation got involved. Now the agencies are increasing the number of lynx by 600%.)

November 16, 2002

By Gary Gerhardt, Rocky Mountain News reporter Nature/Wildlife

gerhardtg@RockyMountainNews.com

303-892-5202

Rocky Mountain News

Denver, Colorado

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The 35 remaining lynx in Colorado will be joined by up to 180 more by 2007 under an expanded reintroduction plan approved Friday by the state Wildlife Commission.

The plan won approval in a 5- to-3 vote after a heated discussion among state and federal agencies, wool growers, livestock producers and conservationists.

The plan calls for the introduction of 50 animals each year for the next three years and 30 to 36 more during the following two years.

The biggest sticking point is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cannot grant "experimental, nonessential" status to the animals, which recently were declared threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

To resolve the impasse, the state and federal wildlife agencies worked out a plan in which two lynx could be killed by hunters accidentally -- and the same number by ranchers -- before they would face endangered species penalties.

"We feel this is adequate because two accidental killings a year is what we've been experiencing," said Russ George, director of the state Division of Wildlife. "Of the 108 we released in 1999 and 2000, six were shot -- three that wandered out of state -- and four others may have been."

Because lynx and bobcats look similar and it's legal to hunt bobcats or kill them if they are attacking livestock, mistakes can be made, wildlife officials said.

To have the reintroduction of lynx be successful, George said, the state wants to establish 30 breeding pairs by 2015.

So far, of the 36 lynx being monitored, there have been no signs of any young being born.

Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service officials said maintaining healthy habitats would take care of lynx as well as such ranch animals as cattle and sheep, and they didn't see conflicts.

State Wildlife Commissioner Robert Shoemaker said he was concerned that if kittens were found on public lands, it could cause the land to become "critical habitat" and shut down grazing allotments. None of the federal land managers could say whether that would happen or not.

Wildlife commissioners suggested waiting until a National Environmental Policy Act process can be completed to get the lynx covered as an "experimental, nonessential" population -- making it easier to kill them if necessary.

But George said there are only a few days left in which to contract with Canadian trappers if they are going to get lynx this year.

Greg Walcher, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, the agency that oversees the state wildlife agency, summed up the situation this way: "This whole process has been very frustrating for everyone. We have some agreements before us, but we need some absolute commitments.

"There are all sorts of concerns by people that the lynx will be used against them -- and it's true, some will try.

"But that will happen whether we go ahead or not, and I feel we need to put the animals on the ground and see if we are successful and get the lynx off the endangered-species list altogether, or find out they never can be recovered here and that's the end of it."

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_1549577,00.html