Officials, Catron residents discuss wolf program

The Silver City Daily Press reports that Benjamin Tuggle, Regional Director of the USFWS met with local citizens concerning the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program. Tuggle told the group he was not in favor of any changes to the EIS. Tuggle told the group, “We have to modify the protocol" and "We have to look at the carrying capacity, pack dynamics and enough land space." He also told the crowd said he was seeking interdiction funding to reimburse ranchers for cattle loss.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

Alan Tackman, Catron County rancher, spoke with emotion and sometimes seemed on the verge of tears. “One day I was pulling a trailer with cattle in the front and horses in the back, when wolves chased us,' Tackman said. “They aren’t wild. She came right up beside my truck. Female 923 stood looking at me. I told her I wasn’t going to feed her.' Last year, Tackman reported losing 15 grown, productive cows, and 20 to 30 of his 150 calves last year. Between eight and 10 of the cows died due to wolf depredation and the others probably succumbed to bear attacks and eating toxic weeds.
“I was constantly finding dead stuff,' Tackman said. “The country is so rough that it would be two or three days before I would find the carcasses.' In July, he also found five injured calves with bite marks corresponding to the width of wolf teeth. In August, the district ranger allowed him to move one-third of his cattle to a grazing permit 60 miles from his property. At the time, he said, he was told by Matt Wunder of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish that the department did not care how many calves were killed, “they weren’t going to remove the wolves.' Tackman was faced with the Dark Canyon Pack denning on his fence line and raising pups. To protect his cattle, he moved them from the area close to the den. As a result, the wolves moved to the neighboring ranch and that rancher had to move his cattle to his winter grazing area. “So the wolves came back to us,' Tackman said. “The bottom line for us is that wolf depredation is costing me $20,000 a year. “I’ve tried everything,' Tackman continued. “I kept the cows in with the calves. I rode the range and had additional range riders, but the wolves hunt at night. It’s a pretty hard thing to swallow...

...Tackman was approached by John Horning of WildEarth Guardians asking him to retire his permit and the organization would pay him for it. “(My family and I) talked about retiring and selling the permit so we could keep living here,' Tackman said. “I called him back to tell him yes, and he said the organization couldn’t afford it.' Although ostensibly Defenders of Wildlife has a reimbursement program for cattle losses due to wolf depredation, Tackman said he has been paid for one cow in 10 years. “ I don’t even call anymore,' he said. “Build a wolf sanctuary or something, but don’t keep killing us.' Tackman said three of his ranching neighbors have sold their land and moved away because of the wolf.

Bucky Allred, owner of the Blue Front Café in Glenwood, said that late last summer his daughter, Sarah, and a Blue Front Café employee, Dave Hathaway, saw what they believed was a wolf at the Catron County landfill. The next morning, she reported it to the Catron County wolf investigator, Jess Carey, who was in the field investigating a wolf kill. The same day, Allred received a call from a biologist at the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish who said he was passing along a message that the site had been checked by a U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf officer. The report said he found only quail, skunk, and dog or coyote tracks. Allred asked how the officer how found the site, because only his daughter and employee knew where the wolf had been seen. The biologist told Allred he had no idea and didn’t care. He was just passing on the message. The next day, Carey was shown the place where the wolf had been sighted and he took six castings of a wolf track...

If you're interested in the wolf program and want to know it's impact on people in the recovery area, you need to read this article. It's hard to understand how any elected official, federal or state, would impose this program on these families.

Billions of dollars are spent on "rural development" by one government agency while another is running families off. It's shameful.

If the link has expired, you can read the full article here.