<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

U.S. wildlife officials aim to address illegal wolf killings

Plan focuses on education, outreach, enforcement patrols

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press
Published: April 18, 2022, 3:20pm

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Prompted by a court order, federal wildlife managers have issued a new draft plan for managing Mexican gray wolves in the Southwestern U.S. in an effort to address illegal killings of the endangered predators.

The plan calls for millions of dollars to be spent over the coming decades on more education, outreach, increased law enforcement patrols and other projects to boost the wolf population across its historic range in Arizona, New Mexico and in Mexico.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently reported that Mexican wolves saw their numbers increase for another consecutive year but that overall growth of the population has been tempered in part by human-caused mortalities, which include illegal killings and being struck by vehicles.

The draft made public last week is meant to address longstanding concerns of environmentalists who claim the agency is not doing enough to ensure the recovery of the species. While encouraged by the proposed changes to address what they call conflict hot spots, some environmentalists say pressure on the wolves will continue until the recovery area is expanded and they are allowed to roam.

Bryan Bird with Defenders of Wildlife said his group believes the revisions should have considered an expansion northward into the Grand Canyon and southern Rocky Mountains.

“Though the proposed revisions improve this imperiled animal’s chances at survival, Defenders remains concerned the plan still fails to prescribe what is needed for full recovery of the world’s most endangered subspecies of wolf,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, federal and state managers still struggle to curb wolf-livestock conflicts. Ranchers in Arizona and New Mexico say wolves continue to kill cattle despite efforts to scare the animals away from herds using tools that range from flagging along fence lines, riders on horseback, pasture rotations and even diversionary food caches.

Under the plan, the wolf recovery team would do more outreach in local communities “to improve hunter, trapper, rancher and public awareness and tolerance.”

Loading...