Pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (“Service”) appeal
from a district court decision enjoining the Service from releasing
Mexican wolves into New Mexico without the requisite state permits. In
June 2016, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (“Department”)
challenged the Service’s intended release of Mexican wolves into an
experimental population within the state, without first obtaining the
required permits from the Department. New Mexico moved for a
preliminary injunction, which the U.S. District Court for the District
of New Mexico granted, after concluding that the Department had shown a
likelihood of success on the merits, that it would suffer irreparable
injury in the absence of an injunction, and that the balance of harms
and the public interest weighed in favor of an injunction. Oral argument of the appeal is scheduled for January 18, 2017. Notably, eight briefs were filed by amicus curiae in support of the Department, including one
by the States of Colorado, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho,
Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma,
South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Under New Mexico law, the importation and release of non-domesticated
animals, including Mexican wolves, requires a permit from the
Department. For activities relating to the population of Mexican wolves
that have occurred in New Mexico since the first release in 1998, it has
been the Service’s practice to first obtain approval from the
Department. In 2015, the Service applied for the
requisite permits in order to import and release wolves into New Mexico.
The Department denied the permits for various reasons, including that
the Service had not developed a comprehensive, up-to-date management
plan regarding the species. The Service indicated in October 2015 that
it intended to move forward with the planned releases, asserting that it
did not have to comply with the Department’s permitting requirements.
The Department thereafter sued the Service, alleging the Service
violated, among other things, the ESA and the Service’s own regulations...more
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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