ACTION ALERT! Speak Out Against the Fish and Wildlife Service’s ‘Recovery Sham’

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is under a court order to complete the plan for the Mexican gray wolf by the end of November.

Despite the recommendations of scientists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service developed a draft recovery plan for the Mexican gray wolf that unnaturally limits the population size and range of this subspecies in the Southwest. Exclusion of millions of acres of suitable habitat near Grand Canyon, north of the current recovery area, and an artificial cap on population size will limit real recovery of this species to a state-managed token animal instead of allowing it to fulfill its important role in maintaining ecosystem health.

This draft plan, as well as the entire recovery planning process is a sham. The previous efforts to draft a plan was an open and transparent process that rested upon the best available science. The current draft plan rests on science drafted by agency staff with conflicts of interest and was planned behind closed doors. The result is a plan that will likely drive the Mexican gray wolf to extinction by exacerbating the genetic problems they’re currently experiencing.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service convened a recovery planning team in 2010 that included a Science and Planning Subgroup made up of some of the top wolf experts in the country. The Science and Planning Subgroup developed draft recommendations for recovery of the Mexican gray wolf based on the best available science, which included the following:

1. In addition to the current wild population of Mexican gray wolves in western New Mexico and eastern Arizona, two new core populations must be established in the Grand Canyon region in northern Arizona and southern Utah and in the Southern Rockies region in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, areas containing the most suitable habitat for Mexican gray wolves.

2. Natural dispersal must be possible between the three core populations through habitat connectivity.

3. Each of the three populations must have a minimum of 200 wolves and, together, must have, at the very least, 750 wolves.

4. There must be a decrease in human-caused mortality.

5. Genetic rescue of the wild population must be addressed.

An abundance of research demonstrates the important role that wolves can play in restoring health and balance to the ecosystems they inhabit. Wolf-related tourism brings an estimated $35 million in annual tourist revenue to the Greater Yellowstone region. Similar economic and ecological benefits are very likely in Arizona once wolves are fully restored to the landscape.