Letter Writers Stand for Wolves!
Big howls of congratulations to the three writers whose letters below supporting Mexican wolf recovery were published recently in regional newspapers!
Writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper is an excellent way to raise awareness about the Mexican gray wolf situation and the management of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It shows public officials that you support the recovery program and expect that they will, too.
Letter: Time running out for Mexican gray wolf
Prescott Daily Courier September 8, 2014
EDITOR:
Recently I had cause to learn about the Heath Hen and its ill-fated journey from the bountiful American Revolution’s dinner plate to a census of zero. Before its untimely end, a remnant of just 50 hens remained.
How similar, this small animal’s plight, to that of our own Southwest icon, the Mexican gray wolf, population 83. Perhaps though, we can save this endangered lobo ¬- our own remnant, so to speak – from extinction.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to limit the lobo’s range and, at the same time, advance opportunities for killing the wolf. Does this plan sound reasonable? Experts have determined that to gain recovery, a population would need to reach 750 and to move about freely to strengthen genetic diversity.
Consider again the Heath Hen, its limited gene pool within a preserve, and hunted freely. Then nature gave notice with a wildfire during breeding season. Unwilling to abandon their nests, female hens perished with their young. Inbreeding, plague, invasion from other animals and a hard winter all took their toll on the weakened remaining hens.
In the end a single, sterile male held the last stand for his species. After, wrote nature writer Maitland A. Edey Sr.: “So you stand, motionless, waiting for somebody – something – to move on this plain; to stir in the grass, to agitate the air, to scratch, snort, cackle. But nothing does; there is nothing to come but dreams. . . .”
We can save the Mexican gray wolf by demanding that FWS expand roaming territory, increase protection through reclassification, and outlaw its killing.
Check out the inspiring Youtube video “How Wolves Change Rivers,” and email U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through its website, www.regulations.gov, by Sept. 23 to write a comment.
Frances K. Thomas
Prescott
Submit your own letter here. 
Letter: Feds not doing the job of Mexican wolf recovery
Salt Lake Tribune September 12, 2014
Thank you, Salt Lake Tribune, for your article, (“Should Mexican Wolves roam Utah?” Sept. 10).
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a sham. This agency has done little for America’s wolf recovery. Instead of protecting and encouraging acceptance of America’s wolves, they sit idle while wolves are slaughtered. Recently they’ve proposed the delisting of America’s gray wolves. (Mexican grays are excluded, for now.)
FWS permits the extermination of wolves based on speculation. Relocating a wolf because it crosses a boundary line disrupts the formation of new packs and the expansion of suitable territory.
Reintroduced 15 years ago, the Mexican Grays continue to struggle with 3 breeding pairs. Births are limited. Grays are waiting for release while FWS stalls, wasting time and taxpayer funds. The delay causes inbreeding and weakens the genetic pool, reducing the Mexican grays’ survival if released.
Instead of encouraging wolf recovery, the FWS submits to pressure from special interests, neglecting their obligation to the majority of taxpayers.
As taxpayers we deserve a return on our investment in wolf recovery.
A full congressional investigation is warranted into this slacking agency. They need to be accountable for their lack of wolf recovery and wasting of taxpayers’ funds.
Irene Sette
New Milford, N.J.
Submit your own letter here: letters@sltrib.com (no attachments)
Letter: More support for the lobos is critical
Albuquerque Journal, September 16, 2014
SOMEWHERE OUT in the Gila Wilderness, a wolf named Ernesta and her mate are raising four pups. At the end of July, the family of lobos known as the Coronado Pack was released into the forest.
In mid-August, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held a public hearing in Truth or Consequences, not too many miles from where the Coronado Pack lives. After a brief presentation outlining their proposed changes to the Mexican gray wolf recovery program, FWS turned the floor over to the public.
For three hours, people spoke, each one given two minutes to voice their opinion. Most of the comments were positive, hopes of someday hearing the howl of a wolf living in its native habitat. Some were negative, frustrations with the loss of livestock to the existing population of wolves. By the end of the evening, more than 70 people had spoken, about two-thirds favoring the expansion of the wolves’ territory, enabling their numbers to increase and enhancing the possibility of their recovery from near extinction.
Ernesta and her mate had limited experience in the wild prior to their recent release. They are learning to feed their family by hunting deer and elk, teaching the 4—month-old pups the skills to survive. It will take our help to ensure that they have the chance to thrive. Once grown, the pups will need space to roam, to hunt and to establish their own territories. They will also need more wolves out there so they can find mates, form packs and raise new litters of pups.
Raising our voices in support of the lobos is critical. FWS will continue to accept comments on the proposed changes to the recovery program through Sept. 23.
For more information and to submit comments, go to regulations.gov and reference FWS-R2-ES-2013-0056-6056. [Note: the comment deadline ended September 23, 2014. Over 71,500 comments were submitted supporting Mexican wolf recovery.]
PAULA NIXON
Santa Fe
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