Wolf News

18
Sep

In the News: Public Meeting On Endangered Mexican Gray Wolves

Albuquerque, NM. The only public hearing in the country on controversial changes to the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program is scheduled for October 4 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Albuquerque’s Embassy Suites.

Also being proposed is the removal of all other gray wolves from the endangered species list.

Two other U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) hearings – in Sacramento, California, and Washington, D.C. – are drawing attention to the FWS’s proposal to remove most gray wolves from the protections afforded by the Endangered Species Act nationwide.  Mexican gray wolves, however, are the only U.S. gray wolf proposed to stay on the list as an “endangered” subspecies, and the Albuquerque hearing will focus on proposed regulations to revamp the 15-year-old lobo reintroduction program.

Just 75 Mexican wolves survive in New Mexico and Arizona.  Progress and planning toward recovering Mexican wolves to safe numbers in the wild has stalled.

“The content of these proposals is critical to the survival and recovery of Mexican wolves, which are still vulnerable to extinction in the wild.  This public hearing will be the last opportunity for a long time for concerned citizens to express their views about Mexican wolves and gray wolves nationwide to federal officials,” said David R. Parsons, Wildlife Biologist, and former coordinator of the FWS’s Mexican wolf recovery program.  Parsons is now with The Rewilding Institute, an Albuquerque-based conservation think tank.

Parsons and scientists assigned to the Mexican Wolf Recovery Team maintain that releases from captivity must be resumed and Mexican wolves must be allowed to live in additional areas with good habitat to secure their recovery. The federal proposal would allow release of captive-bred wolves into the Gila National Forest in New Mexico and allow wolves to roam outside of current boundaries.

The proposal would stop wolves from reaching important suitable habitats north of Interstate 40 and south of I-10 by ordering their capture and return to the prescribed area.

The public hearing will last from 6 – 9 p.m., Friday, October 4, 2013, at the Embassy Suites, 1000 Woodward Place NE, Albuquerque.

Conservation groups will hold a Save the Lobo event in the same location prior to the hearing.

This article was posted to KRWG online on September 24, 2013.

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You and other supporters of the Mexican wolf are all that will stand between extinction and survival for these critically endangered, beautiful and intelligent animals.  Please stand up and speak up for the lobo on October 4.

CLICK HERE for more information about the Save the Lobo event and the Fish and Wildlife Service Hearing in Albuquerque.
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If you are unable to attend the hearing in Albuquerque, please submit comments to the US Fish and Wildlife Service on the proposed changes to the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction rule and on how to encourage NM members of Congress to stand for wolves.
Thank you for speaking out to save Mexican wolves!

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Photo credit: Rebecca Bose, Wolf Conservation Center

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