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Saturday, November 14, 2009
'3 Strikes' Rule for Wolves Abandoned
By Rene Romo
Journal Southern Bureau
LAS CRUCES — A rule that required removal from the wild Mexican gray wolves that killed three or more livestock in a one-year period is being abandoned under the settlement of a federal lawsuit.
Conservationists for years have criticized the rule, known as Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 13, for hampering the growth of the endangered Mexican wolf population. Conservation groups brought the lawsuit against the Fish and Wildlife Service last year.
Under the rule, issued in April 2005, Fish and Wildlife was required to kill, or place in captivity, wolves that reached the three-strike threshold, regardless of the particular wolf's genetic value, the presence of dependent pups or the size of the wild wolf population.
Mexican gray wolves, which were reintroduced to southeast Arizona in early 1998, numbered 52 in the wild as of January with two breeding pairs. The Fish and Wildlife Service had projected that, by the end of 2006, the wolf population in the recovery area in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico would reach 102 with 18 breeding pairs.
"With so few Mexican wolves in the wild, we need to restore the role of science, and this is a good step in that direction," said Eva Sargent, Southwest program director for Defenders of Wildlife, one of 10 plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Since the start of the wolf reintroduction project, Fish and Wildlife has had the authority to remove "problem" wolves from the wild, but defining problem wolves and deciding when to remove or kill them has been a major point of contention between ranchers, environmentalists and government officials. Gov. Bill Richardson in 2007 urged the agency to stop the practice.
Laura Schneberger, head of the Gila Livestock Growers Association, said she hoped Fish and Wildlife will comply with the general rule requiring the removal of "problem wolves." She added, "Failure to follow the rule has allowed problem wolf behavior to become pack behavior under SOP 13 management."
Under the settlement, the federal agency acknowledges that the Adaptive Management Oversight Committee, an interagency group of federal, state and tribal officials, has "no decision-making authority" over the wolf recovery project.
Conservationists contended that Fish and Wildlife, starting in 2003, had ceded control of the wolf reintroduction effort, and management decisions, to the committee.
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