From: Keeler Ranch
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 2:44 PM

Jaguar Conservation Team meeting - 6/29/06

Just a brief update on the Jaguar Conservation Team meeting in Douglas yesterday. The good news is we were able to rap up the meeting in just one day. The bad news is we accomplished very little.

As an attendee at every Team meeting, with the exception to one, since the Team’s inception in 1997, nothing surprises me any more. I knew allowing the Soil and Water Conservation Districts voting rights would be a hot issue.

Terry Johnson,AZ Game and Fish Department got out of making any decisions on this matter by telling the Team the decision would be made by the two state wildlife agency directors. In New Mexico that would be Bruce Thompson, in Arizona - Duane Shroufe. In all the time I’ve been attending the meetings, I’ve never seen Terry fail to have the authority to make a decision. Obviously, he’s trying to pass any political fallout regarding this decision on to his superiors.

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Terry J. presided over the meeting. The morning was spent going through the agenda. I’ll touch on some of the important issues:

Hidalgo County and the White Water Draw NRCD applied for and were granted signatory status under the old Memorandum of Agreement (MOA).

Draft Summary Notes: We were given copies of the draft summary notes from the April 27-28 JAGCT meeting in Lordsburg. However, they are so disjointed and vague, it makes commenting on them very difficult.

There were several motions passed, including one that allowed the Soil and Water Conservation Districts to become voting members, and another that would have minimized the priority area for jaguar conservation activities to 3 counties in Arizona and Hidalgo County in New Mexico. However, these motions are vaguely worded in the draft summary notes. It was brought to Terry Johnson’s attention that the signators of the old MOA had voted to allow Soil and Water Conservation Districts signatory status by acclimation in the April Team meeting. Hopefully this will be duly noted in the upcoming summary notes.

I would suggest we contact the AZ Game and Fish and ask the draft notes from the Lordsburg meeting be rewritten before anyone tries to comment or suggest changes. I would also encourage everyone to ask the motions be fully written…. Since the meetings are not taped and we have nothing to refer to except the summary notes, we need to be able to know what AZ G&F actually recorded.

Comments on the Draft Summary Notes are due by July 14th and should be e-mailed to Bill Van Pelt, BVanpelt@azgfd.com or Terry Johnson TJohnson@azgfd.com AZ Game and Fish Department.

Update on sightings: There have been no new sightings of jaguar in New Mexico since the last meeting. There were three “black” cat sightings that have been classified as Class III sightings in Arizona. Class III sightings are the lowest level of classification - indicating the sightings were not jaguars.

Kill activities: Jack Childs reported there had been no kills by jaguars (I might add, in 9 years there have never been any kills reported). However, they were able to document, through the trip cameras, a jaguar (Macho B) feeding on a dead cow in Arizona. The cow was from Mexico and “trespassing” on the American side of the border.

Coordination with Mexico: Bill VanPelt discussed the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s participation in the Trilateral Committee and the resolution that was passed to continue the United States’ collaborative work with Mexico. He also told everyone that Mexico had declared 2005 the year of the jaguar and will be developing a conservation plan for jaguars in Mexico to be completed by the end of 2006.

Memorandum of Agreement: There was a great deal of discussion on the new Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). Here are some of the concerns brought forth:

· The text and intent has been significantly changed from the old MOA

· The primary emphasis area for conservation action has been redefined to include Pima, Santa Cruz, Graham, Greenlee, and Cochise counties in Arizona and Hidalgo, Grant and Catron counties, in New Mexico.

· Arizona Game and Fish Department and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish are now the “Lead Agencies”.

· All other signatories on the MOA are called “Cooperators”.

· Soil and Water Conservation Districts can “participate” through an umbrella agreement with the each state with one vote per state, but individual districts can not have voting powers.

· Additional “Cooperators” may be added, only with the concurrence of the Lead Agencies.

· The chairmanship is now limited to the two state wildlife agencies.

· Only “employees” of the Cooperators can now vote. This would effectively eliminate county commissioners and supervisors from voting

· No proxies will be accepted. This would prohibit the counties from extending a proxy to their designated representatives.

It is obvious Arizona Game and Fish desires complete control over the Jaguar Conservation Team as well as control over the direction the strategy will take in the future.

Equal footing with the participating agencies will no longer be granted and there will be minimal representation of local concerns. In other words, the federal and state agencies will now be the driving force behind jaguar conservation and the real “stakeholders” will have very little to say where this agenda is driven by the unelected federal and state agencies.

I’m off to spend some time with family! Will catch you up on the new Framework discussion next week!!

Hope you all have a Fantastic 4th of July!!