Positive impact of Mexican wolf program is overlooked

The Mexican wolf reintroduction program has encountered its share of challenges, yet it’s disappointing to see that The Arizona Republic editorial on Tuesday, “Gives wolves a chance,” neglects to include any mention of the program’s positive accomplishments and omits basic facts that are important to understanding the milestones that have been achieved in the management of this experimental population. Most importantly — and as is often demonstrated — the Arizona Game and Fish Commission is committed to restoring a sustainable, wild population of Mexican wolves in Arizona. It is naive to believe that the needs of the public and multiple uses of the land don’t figure into the equation. Arizona Game and Fish, working alongside other program partners, spends countless hours in the field working to make the program successful in balance with the other wildlife, public-land values and uses that Arizonans expect from their working landscapes. Many Arizona ranchers deserve credit for taking proactive measures to work with the department to further wolf recovery, but that’s largely unrecognized — most recently by The Republic, as well as by many in the environmental community. Ranchers use range riders, fencing fladry and telemetry equipment — all of which is accounted for in Arizona’s inventories — to monitor wolves on the landscape, provide a human presence in those areas to deter wolf-livestock interactions, and, in some instances, even move their livestock to avoid conflicts. Just as those who vilify wolves do a disservice to wolf conservation, those who vilify people who live on the land where wolves are conserved do a similar disservice...more

The author, J.W. Harris, is Chairman of the Az. G&F Commission.