For immediate release: September 25, 2014
For further information, contact:
Caren Cowan, New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association
505.247.0584New Mexicans were outraged to learn that the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Arizona Game & Fish Department (AGFD) have entered into a deal to accept an unpublished plan for Mexican wolf management in Arizona and New Mexico, according to Jose Varela Lopez, New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association President, La Cieneguilla.
“It is incomprehensible that a federal agency would engage in such an
action,” said Varela Lopez. “We learned on September 22 that the deal
had been made.
Comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and final
revision of the Endangered Species Act 10j rule didn’t even close until
September 23.”
The Mexican wolf reintroduction has been the subject of great
controversy for more than 20 years and has had significant economic
impact on rural communities
in the reintroduction areas of New Mexico, noted Jack McCormick,
Northern New Mexico Safari Club President, Edgewood.
Sources indicate that the deal cut between FWS and AGFD will do the following:
(I)
A
Service commitment of no wolves north of Interstate 40. Wolves that
are identified north of I-40 will be trapped and returned to the Mexican
Wolf Experimental Population Area
utilizing a 10(a)1(a) permit.
(II)
An
expressed upper population limit in the rule of 300-325 Mexican wolves
in NM and AZ. When the population objective of 300-325 is reached,
strict removal will be implemented to
reduce the population to the maximum of 300-325 individual animals.
(III)
Mexican
wolves would be removed if impacting wild ungulate herds at a rate
higher than 15% as determined by the States using state methodologies of
population measurement.
(IV)
Zones
of occupancy that are similar or the same as proposed by the Arizona
Game and Fish Department in their previous comments and alternative.
These items were all contained in an alternative for the EIS from
Arizona that wasn’t even published in the EIS, McCormick continued, so
members of the
public have had no opportunity to review and comment on it.
“This deal clearly violates the spirit, the intent, and the letter of
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA),” noted Tom McDowell, New
Mexico Trappers
Association President, Corrales.
While the deal will have tremendous impact on New Mexicans and land within New Mexico was included in
the alternative developed by
the AGFD, the effort had absolutely no support from any New Mexicans,
said Kim Talbot, Southern New Mexico Chapter of the Safari Club. The New
Mexico Department of Game & Fish withdrew from the wolf program two
years ago because it was being run over by the
FWS, he said.
A dozen sportsmen and livestock organizations in New Mexico put FWS
Director Dan Ashe on notice that the actions of the federal and state
agency are pre-decisional
and recommended withdrawal of the entire process with a letter on September 25, 2014.
“The rush to judgment on this issue is a result of a multi-species
settlement entered into by the US. Department of Justice more than two
years ago with two radical environmentalist
groups,” reported Varela Lopez. “The FWS is set to complete the wolf
program revisions by early 2015. Clearly there will be much more
litigation on the issue.
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