Feds to introduce more wolves this summer (between Interstate 40 and the U.S./Mexico border)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided an update on the controversial Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program to attendees at the sixth annual Natural History of the Gila Symposium — an update that told a story of poor genetic diversity and a small drop in numbers. The agency’s representative also revealed plans for more wolf reintroductions into the Gila National Forest in coming months. According to changes made to the recovery plan in 2014, the FWS plans to reintroduce several more captive-raised specimens into the wild this year. The changes to the plan expand the possible reintroduction areas to anywhere between Interstate 40 and the U.S./Mexico border in Arizona and New Mexico. That, of course, includes the Gila National Forest here in Grant County. No specific dates have been set for the reintroductions this summer because some of the wolves set for release are pups that haven’t been born yet. This fostering approach to reintroduction has only been attempted once with Mexican gray wolves and was not a huge success. Laudon expressed optimism for the plan, however, saying it is based on a program from the Appalachian Mountain region involving red wolves that worked well...more

Laudon also spoke to the prickly relationship between the wolves and the ranching community. He said that most of the problems between wolves and cows or sheep could be avoided with the alteration of the unique and long-practiced ranching methods in the region. He said the type of year-round grazing done on the public lands here is “done almost nowhere else,” and causes more interaction between livestock and predators.

 No big deal.  Just a change from year around to seasonal grazing.  It will cut their grazing and the value of their permits by 50 percent or more.  No big deal.  Current operations will no longer be viable.  Ranching families will be destroyed.  No big deal.

The new enviro formula:

Year around grazing to---seasonal grazing to---no grazing