The plan from 1982 has failed. Wolf population is low and stagnant-
The prominent conservation groups are petitioning under the Administration Procedures Act for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to meet it legal obligations to recovery the Mexican wolf (with a new plan).
As David Parsons of the Rewildling Institute has said this has become a put and take wolf program. His group is one of the petitioners.
Here is the news release with a link to the petition.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project and the creator of The Wildlife News.
Good for them, keeping them in artifically contained recovery areas is ridiculous, and should be illegal.
The Albuquerque Journal has an article on the petition this morning in which FWS spokesperson Elizabeth Slown quoted as still blaming the lack of movement on the recovery plan on “competing judges’ orders over the larger gray wolf species elsewhere in the nation.” She claims that “[t]hose need to be sorted out a little more carefully before we take up the recovery plan again.” She claims that she has no idea when that can be done.
Given that the Service chose not to appeal the Oregon and Vermont decisions striking down the 2003 downlisting proposal (which divided the country into three distinct population segments) way back in December of 2005, you’d think they could have come up with a satisfactory solution by now. It’s just another case of administration foot-dragging with dire consequences for the lobo.
Foot dragging and lack of sincere intention to do anything productive.
As bad as things are for wolves elsewhere, the Mexican Gray is far more critical in it’s need for assistance. It has been the topic of horror stories, the monster people brain wash their own children with, and it has more stacked against it.
Let us hope that the Mexican wolf gets some help, or we may not see it outside of a zoo for very much longer. Good luck to these folks.
You need to keep a pool of 300 animals in captivity to cope with the „attrition rate“ in the wild? Sounds realistic. Why should one honestly believe next time the lobos will receive a warmer welcome in the southwest?
Peter,
They shouldn’t.