MEXICAN WOLF PROJECT TO CONTINUE

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that the Mexican Wolf Blue Range Reintroduction Project will continue with modifications following a 5-year review of the project by the Mexican Wolf Adaptive Management Oversight Committee (AMOC).

The AMOC consists of representatives of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, Arizona Game and Fish Department, USDA Wildlife Services and the Forest Service, and the White Mountain Apache Tribe. The Service?s decision was based upon recommendations from the AMOC and extensive public input.

"The Service in cooperation with members of the AMOC will continue to move forward in the management of wolves in their natural habitat," said the Service?s Acting Southwest Regional Director Dr. Benjamin Tuggle. "We support AMOC's recommendations and think the recommendations and subsequent discussions with stakeholders will greatly improve the effectiveness of the Mexican wolf program."

In 1976 the wolf was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In 1998, the Service began reintroducing Mexican wolves in a portion of their historic habitat in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. The wolves were released as a ?nonessential experimental population? under section 10(j) of the ESA. A designation as a nonessential population permits more flexibility in the management of species that are reintroduced to their historic range.

Among the recommendations presented by the AMOC are basic management activities that can be started immediately to improve monitoring, live trapping methods, communications and outreach, and methods of estimating wolf populations.

The Service with input from AMOC and other partners will craft necessary modifications requiring formal rule changes - such as boundary expansion - that are under federal jurisdiction.

Tuggle said the Service also plans to work with its cooperators to develop a comprehensive wolf-livestock interdiction program that would address known and potential economic impacts by nuisance wolves and other measures to reduce livestock depredation and recover wolf populations. In addition, the agency will consider the appropriate role of a wolf recovery team in implementing the AMOC recommendations. These measures would be contingent upon available funding and could take up to three years to complete, he added.

"Today we?ve taken a major step forward, but there is much work still to be done, Tuggle said. In the coming months and years, we will continue working closely with AMOC, conservation groups, ranchers and other stakeholders to recover the Mexican wolf population and minimize impacts on livestock and landowners. This is the essence of cooperative conservation."

Copies of the AMOC?s 5-year review documents (including the 37 recommendations) can be downloaded from the Arizona Game and Fish Department website at :

http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/es/wolf_reintroduction.shtml