Utah worries about protections for Mexican wolves

Utah’s governor and wildlife chief are sounding the alarm about wolves on a second front, fearing the federal government is about to classify Mexican gray wolves for protection in the southern part of the state. Gov. Gary Herbert and Division of Wildlife Resources Director Jim Karpowitz wrote to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Daniel Ashe, respectively, in late September, protesting what they say is the federal wildlife agency’s apparent plan to expand protections from Arizona and New Mexico into southern Utah and Colorado. Herbert’s letter, obtained through an open-records request, asserts that Fish and Wildlife officials are telling the state they will reclassify the Mexican wolf as a subspecies — granting it full protections wherever it roams — and include Utah in its recovery zone. The governor disputes that the lobo’s range, mostly in northern Mexico, ever reached here. “The only explanation they give,” Herbert wrote, “is that Utah and Colorado have unoccupied wolf habitat, and therefore must contribute to the recovery of the Mexican wolf.” Utah officials and lawmakers have made clear that they want wolves kept out or minimized in an effort to protect livestock and big game. The Fish and Wildlife Service, insisting it hasn’t yet chosen how to advance a recovery program, is sending its Southwest regional director to Salt Lake City for a meeting with Karpowitz on Thursday. State officials’ nightmare scenario, Karpowitz said, is that Mexican wolves moving in from the south would trigger statewide protections even if the recovered Rocky Mountain gray wolves from the north have no Endangered Species Act safeguards. A state wanting control over Rocky Mountain wolves could be thwarted by a look-alike protection clause in the law. Although generally smaller, Mexican wolves would be hard to distinguish from their northern cousins...more