Mexico to place 5 wolves near AZ

The government of Mexico is planning to reintroduce five endangered Mexican gray wolves in northeastern Sonora - within a wolf's walking distance of Arizona. The reintroduction, scheduled to occur as early as this month, has forced U.S. state and federal agencies to scramble. Their problem is to figure out what to do if a wolf wanders north into the United States. So far, their answer isn't pleasing ranchers: They'll treat any wolves from Mexico as fully endangered and therefore largely untouchable. "For one (wolf) to go 80 miles in one week is nothing," said Laura Schneberger of the Gila Livestock Growers Association in New Mexico. "Once they're managed as fully endangered species, you won't be able to remove them for any reason." She called Mexico's plan, made in concert with some U.S. and allied Mexican environmental groups, an "end around" to bring wolves into the U.S. from the south. That possible result sounds like a good thing to some environmentalists from Arizona and New Mexico. They view the troubled wolf reintroduction straddling those U.S. states, in a place called the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, as weakened by rules that allow easy removals of wolves. "We do eventually want connectivity between the Blue Range wolves and wolves in Mexico," said Michael Robinson of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity...read more