Wolf meeting focuses on recovery efforts

By Mike Marino
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — In the late 1970s the Mexican gray wolf was considered an endangered species. By the 1980s, the wolf population showed healthy signs of recovery. Three quarters of the Mexican wolf population now in New Mexico are wild-born, stemming from a program to reintroduce the wolf to the wilds that began in March of 1998. The recovery program instituted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, New Mexico Ecological Services is patterned after a similar program in Yellowstone National Park.

Thursday evening the Fish and Wildlife Service conducted a statewide public meeting at the Best Western motel in Grants as part of a fact finding and rule change process that will determine the future of New Mexico’s Mexican gray wolf populations. About 60 people showed up to find out more information or to offer opinions on the program.

“The main focus of the meeting and future meetings is for input to open dialogue between opposing parties on the wolf recovery issue,” John Slown, the Mexican wolf planner for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office in Albuquerque, said. “I feel these types of meetings are important because they open up a flow of dialogue between opposing parties to a discussion. The most vocal of those being the ranchers and hunters. The ranchers loose livestock due to wolf predation and the hunters and professional outfitters loose prey species due to wolves, so there are many sides of the issue that need to be addressed.”

Wolf recovery supporters were on hand with information, exhibits and answering questions. There had been three prior public meetings held in Flagstaff, McNary and Alpine, Ariz. The next meeting in New Mexico is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 1, in Socorro.”

James Paulson, the outreach coordinator of the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary near Pine Hill hopes the informational meetings will be helpful. “We have to do all we can to protect these wolves. The Federal government is in control of it currently and the more information and input available to them will help in improving the overall project and goals,” he said.

Lisa Hummons, outreach representative for the New Mexico Defenders of Wildlife in Albuquerque, was on hand with presentations on the benefits of preserving and encouraging the increase in wolf populations in the state.

“We’re very excited about this opportunity to share ideas and inform the public so when they do make comments those will be based on education. It’s a great opportunity right the wrongs of the past such as the Boundary Rule where if the wolf strays out of it’s established area, the Blue Range, they can be picked up and returned. Sometimes this results in injury but most importantly, it restricts the animals pack instincts to expand and reproduce which can be a factor in lower population increases,” Hummons said.

Though Mexican gray wolves were exterminated from the wilds of New Mexico and Arizona during the last century, wildlife biologists began reintroducing them back to the wild in 1998. Almost 60 wild wolves roam the Gila and Apache National Forests. This number has been stagnant for a number of years, indicating a need to renovate the program to ensure the long term success of this important western icon.