Arizona lawsuit: Plan to recover endangered Mexican wolves is flawed

U.S. wildlife managers failed to adopt a recovery plan for the endangered Mexican gray wolf that would protect against illegal killings and the consequences of inbreeding, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by environmentalists. A coalition of environmental groups filed the complaint in federal court in Arizona, marking the latest challenge in a decades-long battle over efforts to re-establish the predator in its historic range in the American Southwest and northern Mexico. The lawsuit alleges the plan adopted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service set inadequate population goals for the wolves, cut off access to vital habitat in other parts of the West and failed to respond to mounting genetic threats. In approving the recovery plan, federal authorities acknowledged that majority of documented mortalities in the United States are human-caused. “Mexican wolves urgently need more room to roam, protection from killing and more releases of wolves into the wild to improve genetic diversity, but the Mexican wolf recovery plan provides none of these things,” said Earth justice attorney Elizabeth Forsyth, who is representing the groups. “The wolves will face an ongoing threat to their survival unless major changes are made.”...more