Mexico set to free gray wolves in NE Sonora

The government of Mexico plans to release five endangered Mexican gray wolves this month in northeastern Sonora, the Arizona Game and Fish Department announced. If released in the same mountain range that Mexican officials have pointed to before, the wolves would be easily within a wolf's walking distance of Arizona. In 2010, Mexican officials said they planned to release wolves in the Sierra San Luis, a mountain range that runs from the Chihuahua-Sonora-New Mexico border southeast to a point about 80 miles south of Douglas. The Mexican government did not go forward with a release last year. Any wolves that cross the border into the United States would be considered fully protected endangered species, said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Tom Buckley. That means nobody may interfere with the wolves unless they are directly threatening people. All five wolves will wear tracking collars when released, Arizona Game and Fish said, citing an informal report on the project. The Mexican government plans to tell the Fish and Wildlife Service if the tracking data shows that a wolf has crossed the border, Buckley said. The release could bring new Mexican gray wolves into contact with the wolves that are being managed in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, something that environmentalists are hoping for. Rancher Laura Schneberger, president of the Gila Livestock Growers Association in New Mexico, said the wolves in Mexico threaten the livelihood of American ranchers. That's because, if wolves cross the border into the U.S., the wolves can't be controlled even if they kill cattle...more

An article in the Albq. Journal further clarifies the status of the wolf if it crosses the border:

If they cross the border, the Fish and Wildlife Service said they will have the full protection of the federal Endangered Species Act as long as they are outside the boundaries of the wolf recovery area that spans southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. If the wolves are found within the recovery area, they will be considered as part of the experimental population — a classification that gives wildlife officials greater flexibility in managing the animals.

Now we'll have mules and wolves coming in from Mexico.  Maybe we need to outfit the Border Patrol with some good traps.