November 1, 2005
Wolf Reintroduction Moratorium Dictated
It is sad to report that a moratorium on Mexican Wolf reintroduction has gone into effect for calendar 2006. This moratorium was forced upon USFWS and the other agencies participating in the reintroduction program by US Representative Pearce of NM.
Click to hear what the wolves have to say.
Opponents of the program have tried throughout 2005 to use the 5 year review process, (concerned with reviewing procedures and techniques,) to attack the existence of the program. These opponents, almost exclusively representatives from the NM livestock industry, complained that six public hearings in the towns located nearest to the release area in 2005 were not adequate for opponents to voice objections to the program's existence. After Rep. Pearce called the program representatives to two additional meetings, open only to invited representatives of the livestock industry, they still felt that they had not been heard adequately, given that the reintroduction program still exists.
In response, the reintroduction program team has released a new Standard Operating Procedure, # 0.D. (The full text of all SOP's is available at http://www.azgfd.gov/.) The moratorium procedure states that the primary concern addressed by the moratorium is
"...Opposition to the Mexican Wolf reintroduction program in general, and specifically to the Blue Range Recovery Project."
Three or four additional concerns, consisting of unsupported assertions regarding the number and type of wolves, and the ability of the professional biologists to manage, are included to try to create a procedural if not scientific link to the review process.
Sadly and curiously, the program management takes responsibility for not having proposed the moratorium without the arm-twisting. The following text, a very impressive effort to keep the bridges open, can be read differently by the different parties involved, and it is likely to be the source of serious blocks to wolf recovery in the years to come:
"In closing, AMOC [Adaptive Management Oversight Committee] notes that the question of whether to enact a moratorium, and the justification for and composition of a moratorium, should have been melded into the pre-existing Five-Year Review, review of relevant Standard Operating Procedures, and development of the Project’s Annual Work Plan for 2006. Thus, the need for, and elements of, any future guidelines for new releases will be discussed as AMOC and the Project’s Interagency Field Team construct Annual Work Plans for each year beyond 2006. These documents will be discussed at AMOC’s quarterly public meetings in Arizona and New Mexico, with ample opportunity for public comment to ensure full consideration of relevant concerns before decisions are made."Posted by The Naturalist at November 1, 2005 4:20 PM