By Nathan Newcomer
N.M. Wilderness Alliance
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is directed by a man who appears more willing to serve the anti-nature mission of the Bush administration than the wildlife protection mandates of public laws and agency regulations.
Director H. Dale Hall who has been working at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) for three decades, is quietly dismantling wildlife recovery programs that threaten the survival of two New Mexico natives— the Mexican gray wolf and the jaguar.
As the former Southwest Regional Director for the USFWS, Hall oversaw the agency's management of the Wolf Recovery Program, which included the reintroduction of lobos in the Gila Wilderness and surrounding public lands.
Reintroduction of wolves to the Gila was only meant to be the starting point for the full recovery of Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest. Hall was directly responsible for indefinitely suspending the recovery team, which was working on a legally required revision to the original 1982 Recovery Plan. Hall had the authority to revise the recovery plan but refused to.
He was soon rewarded with promotion to director of the USFWS. In his new role Hall, continues to block recovery planning for wolves, demonstrating a lack of commitment to the agency's own mission statement, which reads: "The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is to work with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people."
Back when he was Southwest Regional Director, Hall also developed policy that restricted the use of recently discovered scientific data in reviewing the status of endangered species. What this means for the Mexican gray wolf is that scientists, wildlife biologists, and decision makers are relying on decades-old data to evaluate the success or lack thereof in the reintroduction program. This type of policy completely contradicts the USFWS commitment to "scientific excellence."
With new numbers out that we are down to only 23 wild lobos left in New Mexico, it is time that Hall carry out his legal mandate to fully recover the Mexican gray wolf.
In mid-January of this year, the Department of Interior abandoned attempts to craft a recovery plan for the endangered jaguar, whose historic range includes New Mexico. The agency issued a press release that stated too few of the rare cats have been spotted to warrant any action on developing a recovery plan.
This rationale, or lack of one, could not be more blatant in demonstrating the USFWS refusal to secure protection for the jaguar— the largest cat in the Americas.
On Jan. 7, Hall with little notice signed a memorandum approving the decision to halt development of a jaguar recovery plan. This egregious act occurred just weeks after the new director of the Southwest Region for Fish & Wildlife, Benjamin Tuggle, wrote in a memo to Hall, that the "preparation of a recovery plan will not contribute to the conservation of the jaguar."
Tuggle went on to write that despite recent sightings of the jaguar in New Mexico, the USFWS should essentially abdicate all its power in making any effort to conserve jaguar habitat or the species itself. Instead, Tuggle argues that this is a problem for Mexico and Central and South America to deal with.
Some argue the jaguar is being sacrificed for the U.S. border fence; designation of border areas as critical recovery areas for the jaguar could constrain building the fence.
Regardless, the agency's primary mission is wildlife conservation, and it should at least encourage the administration to work with the Mexican government and/or its private citizens in coming up with comprehensive solutions for protecting the jaguar.
With no more than 120 of these animals roaming freely in northern Mexico and the Southwest, Tuggle and Hall not only have a mandate to protect jaguars, but also an obligation to ensure that the northernmost population of this majestic cat does not go extinct under their watch.
Ultimately, the decisions and responsibilities lay squarely in the lap of H. Dale Hall. Instead of ignoring science, public sentiment, and his agency's mission statement, Hall needs to reaffirm his commitment to wildlife conservation. It is time to put the wildlife he pledged to protect before his pension. It is time to put science before politics and stop the Bush administration's final assault on nature.
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