Environmental groups file lawsuit on Mexican gray wolf recovery

Four nonprofit organizations and one individual, retired Mexican wolf recovery coordinator David R. Parsons, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tuesday alleging they have not provided a complete recovery plan for the Mexican gray wolf, an endangered species. The four nonprofit agencies are Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, Wolf Conservation Center and Endangered Wolf Center. The original 1982 Mexican gray wolf recovery plan is far from complete and "later amendment of the plan is obviously required for its realistic completion," authors of the plan stated. The Mexican gray wolf has long been in conflict with ranchers in the West. There are some who feel that having even 83 Mexican gray wolves in the wild is 83 too many. But not everyone sees the situation in such black and white terms. Wendy Peralta, owner of Glenwood Store and Trading Post, describes herself as neither a rancher nor an environmentalist. She says she is not "anti-wolf" and calls herself a conservationist. But she says a Mexican gray wolf recovery plan has hurt small shops like hers in remote, rural areas of southwest New Mexico. She points out that the more ranchers lose ground to Mexican gray wolf recovery, the fewer cattle there are to graze on the land. Since cattle are taxed as property tax, that means a smaller tax base for the area, and property taxes affect the local schools. "The wolf recovery program has hurt ranchers, but it has hurt us in a different way," Peralta said. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit contend that with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's lack of implementation of a complete recovery plan for the Mexican gray wolf, the nearly extinct animal may not survive in the wild. The current population suffers from serious inbreeding, which leads to animals more prone to disease and animals unable to adapt to environmental changes...more