Trapping Ban in New Mexico

Lame duck governor Bill Richardson, Democrat, recently ordered a six month ban on legal furbearer trapping throughout the Gila and Apache National Forests in New Mexico because of reintroduced Mexican gray wolves. The reasoning within Executive Order 2010-029 states that the wolves are “suffering from human development, reduction in habitat, and hunting”. Yet no provisions in the order were made to address any of those so-called impediments to the constantly faltering reintroduction effort. Trapping was singled out instead. The order directs the Game & Fish Department to “undertake a study of the various traps” used in the so-called “wolf recovery area” and “pursue appropriate regulations to allow trapping within the Recovery Area …and…pose minimum risk of harm or injury to the Mexican gray wolf”. Well, this has already been done for legal citizen trappers, but it has NOT been regulated for wildlife agencies and their minions routinely trapping these same wolves. But the governor either doesn’t know of or care about such a discrepancy. When I worked for the Arizona Game & Fish Department, for example, shooting from vehicles and across roads, as well as the use of traps that were deemed illegal for citizens were considered “biologically justifiable” and were standard actions. Close scrutiny of the Mexican wolf reintroduction doesn’t hold up very well in this department either; and doesn’t help Governor Richardson’s reasoning at all. The federal Wildlife Services (APHIS/WS) was given the responsibility of trapping these wolves for a variety of reasons from the inception of the reintroduction program. The animals were trapped to put or change radio collars on them; to inoculate them; to relocate them or possibly to euthanize them. All of these captures were and still are done with #7 McBride foothold traps, a rig that is illegal for citizens of either Arizona or New Mexico to use...more