By Christine Steele / Sun-News Bureau Chief
SILVER CITY - Members of the New Mexico Legislature's Water and Natural Resources Committee heard presentations Monday from both sides of the Mexican gray wolf issue during the first day of a two-day meeting here.
Michael Robinson, conservation advocate with the Center of Biological Diversity, stressed the importance of protecting the Mexican gray wolf and allowing it to thrive in the wild, while Catron County Commissioner Ed Wehrheim discussed the struggle ranchers have in their battle against the species.
Since 1998, when the Mexican gray wolf was reintroduced to the Gila, the federal government has shot and killed 11 wolves, accidentally killed 18 as a result of capture and relegated 37 more to captivity, Robinson said.
The center seeks a balance on public lands and to see the species survive in the wild, he said.
"It's important that this critically imperiled and much persecuted animal have a home in the Gila," Robinson said.
Members of the legislative panel directed their questions to Robinson and Wehrheim. The audience was not allowed to ask questions, and Robinson and Wehrheim were directed to not ask each other questions or offer rebuttals to each other's positions.
Most members of the legislative committee appeared to be more sympathetic to the ranchers, several ridiculing Robinson's suggestion that ranchers remove dead carcasses of cattle that have died by other means so the wolves don't have something on which to feed.
Robinson said both the American Society of Mammologists and a separate scientific panel have called for removing carcasses so the wolves won't be able to eat them.
Methods of destroying the carcasses, Robinson said, include burning, using lime, hauling out if the carcass is near a road or even using dynamite.
Robinson said 16 dead cows were found very close to roads this spring, they were deemed to have died by means other than wolves and there were no claims that wolves had killed any livestock in the area.
One legislator said what Robinson was suggesting really seemed to him like a "fairy-tale."
Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Do-a Ana, suggested that the Mexican gray wolves be captured and put in a fenced-in center where people would pay money to see them.
"The goal is to preserve an ecosystem, and that wouldn't do that by putting the animals in a large zoo," Robinson said.
Wehrheim said Catron County had lost four ranches in the past year and he attributed those losses to wolves. He also predicted the county would lose another four ranches this year, also due to the wolves.
"A pack of wolves moves onto a ranch and wipes that ranch out and moves onto the next ranch," he said.
Members of the committee also took issue with a survey Robinson cited, saying that 69 percent of people polled in the state supported the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction plan. One panel member questioned whether those polled lived in the cities of Santa Fe or Albuquerque.
Panel members also questioned where the Center for Biological Diversity got its funding. Robinson responded that the organization has more than 40,000 dues-paying members who believe in the conservation efforts of the organization.
Wehrheim started his presentation by referring to a petition written by Robinson for the center, claiming that the petition would ban hunting, firewood cutting and public access, and that it would change the experimental nonessential designation of the wolves. Robinson said the petition would have no such effect.
The petition asks that the Mexican gray wolf be designated its own subspecies or distinct population segment (listing possibilities under the endangered species act). Currently, the Mexican gray wolf is folded into a much broader listing for gray wolves throughout much of the U.S.
"Once it is listed separately, then the Fish and Wildlife Service will have to develop a recovery plan specific to the Mexican gray wolf," Robinson said.
The two-day meeting continues this morning at the Grant County Business Center.
Christine Steele can be reached at csteele@scsun-news.com (575) 538-5893 ext. 5802.
The article above was published in the Silver City Sun-News on September 22, 2009:
http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_13390580
Letters to the editor supporting Mexican wolf recovery can be submitted to the Silver City Sun-News at:
hwise@scsun-news.com
