Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Mexican Gray Wolf Update Posted: 04 May 2009 02:04 PM PDT We've reported on the progress of the Mexican Gray Wolf recovery a few times on the blog. It's a project that is near and dear to my heart and one that keeps me awake at night, too.  I love wild animals and I love the wilderness. We have plenty of both here in Southwest, New Mexico. If you combine the Gila and Aldo Leopold Wilderness areas we have over 750,000 acres of lightly traveled country in our own back yard. The only way to enjoy it is to hike or ride a horse and in both cases you need to pack in everything you need.    I've walked across the Gila twice and my buddy Phil and I have covered most of the Aldo Leopold from south to north along the Black Range Crest. It is magnificent wild country and the former and future home of Canis lupus bailei, the Mexican Gray Wolf. The area is also home to Elk, White Tail and Mule Deer, Black Bear, Mountain Lion and a host of other wild critters.   The Wilderness lies within the larger Gila National Forest and is open to hunting, fishing, backpacking and pack trips with mules, horses or even llamas. The Wilderness is closed to all vehicular traffic and off limits to livestock grazing. Parts of the Gila National Forest are open to livestock grazing under the multiple use concept.    Lots of people might be unaware of the fact that private ranchers are able to lease public land from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for grazing cattle. The government charges somewhere around $1.20 a month for a mother cow and her calf to graze our public lands. That's pretty cheap considering the price of grazing land on the open market. Lot's of people think it's too cheap considering the level of impact cattle have on an ecosystem.   In New Mexico most of the people you ask are in favor of the effort to restore the wolf to his former range. Some are not and as you might expect those opposed are the cattle men that lease our public lands to fatten their cattle for market. Not all ranchers are against the effort but it seems most are. Some hunters are against it too because they don't want to share the Elk and Deer population with the Wolves. This despite evidence that there are enough Elk to go around for everyone.   The US Fish and Wildlife Service that manages the Wolf reintroduction is caught in the middle and they catch flack from both sides of the issue. Supporters of Wolf reintroduction are not happy with many of the rules that govern the introduction. They think that these rules impede the progress of the plan and in fact they may be right. We are only half way to the projected number of wolves we hoped to have by this time and some of the restrictions on recovery area boundaries and removal of wolves that have been involved with cattle kills are largely responsible.    There are inevitable conflicts when you have cows and wolves living in the same area. The Defenders of Wildlife has a compensation fund for confirmed wolf kills where they reimburse the cattle man for his loss. Unfortunately cattlemen don't seem to care or appreciate this. They think that they are entitled to graze their cows on our land without having to worry about the occasional loss of a cow or a calf.   The worst problem with the recovery plan is illegal killing of wolves by those opposed to the program. Some people feel justified in breaking federal law because they disagree with the government's responsibility under the Endangered Species Act to recover this wolf population. In my mind this is unconscionable. How would these individuals feel if wolf supporters took it upon themselves to shoot cows grazing on federal land simply because they disagreed with that federal policy?   In short, they want their cake and the want to eat it, too.    The Wolf was here long before the cow, living in harmony with everything else in the environment. They deserve a place in their former home. There are only 50 or so of them left in the wild and another 300 or so in captive breeding programs in the US and Mexico.    The other option is extinction and that is simply not acceptable.

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