Wolves Could Be Brought Into Wilderness Today
	From the March 21, 2000

By Lisa Parker
Sun-News

Mexican gray wolves could be placed into the Gila Wilderness as early as today, according to Wendy Brown, acting coordinator of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery project.

"We're hoping to build a pen today," Brown said Tuesday, and if weather permits, the four-member Mule Pack would be placed in that pen in the Chicken Coop-Creel Canyon area today. Brown said the soft-net enclosure goes up quickly and would be about 200 feet in circumference.

She added that an area, "likely quite a lot less than a mile," will be closed to public access while the wolves become acclimated. According to a Service news release, the wolves could be held there for up to 30 days. Brown added that the area closure "won't affect anyone's ability to get around by trail."

Brown said the Mule Pack is made up of an adult pair and two yearlings. "This particular pack, the Mule Pack, has never depredated livestock," she said. "The reason we had recaptured that pack was they were in an area with a lot of livestock" with calving season oncoming. She said the Service wanted to move the Mule Pack into an area with more elk and less interaction with livestock.

The Mule Pack would have been immediately relocated into another area of Arizona, Brown said, but the alpha female of the pack was injured while being trapped. As a result, part of one of her front legs was amputated and she and her pack were taken to the Ladder Ranch near Truth or Consequences while she recuperated.

She is now pregnant, and according to Vicki Fox, a Service public relations official, she is in good shape. "The pack will take care of her," Fox said.

The Gila Wilderness areas the Service plans to use for wolf translocation include McKenna Park, Chicken Coop/Creel Canyons, Miller Springs and Halfmoon Park. Miller Springs is in Grant County; the other locations are in Catron County.

Brown said the Pipestem Pack, with two pups, a yearling female and an adult pair, will be released as soon as possible in the Halfmoon Park area which she called the most remote of the translocation sites. The alpha female of that pack is also pregnant.

The wolf translocation comes six days after the March 15 deadline for public input into a Feb. 10 environmental assessment on wolf translocation. According to the news release, about 9,000 comments were received on the assessment, which suggested alternatives of soft release, hard release and no wolf translocation into the Gila Wilderness. Soft release -- meaning wolves would be placed into holding pens for an acclimation period before being released into the wild -- was the Service's preferred alternative.

The news release said the public input included "many strong opinions ... both for and against wolf recovery efforts. But the public participation process was not a referendum or a vote. The process has been part of the Service's intent to learn of any additional effects of the proposed action not already addressed in the Environmental Impact Statement. The Service remains confident with the findings in the original Environmental Impact Statement." That EIS was done in 1996.

Nancy Kaufman, Southwest Regional director for the Service, was quoted in the release: "Our proposal to translocate wolves to the Gila has generated a great deal of interest from the public. We appreciate all the interest and participation in this issue. We are confident that having the flexibility to translocate wolves to the Gila Wilderness will enhance recovery of this magnificent native species and help to minimize management conflicts."

But Rep. Joe Skeen, R-N.M., issued a news release Tuesday continuing his objection to the project. "I am amazed at the hypocrisy involved in the decision to go forward with reintroduction plans, particularly since there is substantial public opposition and no emergency to justify this government decision issued with record speed ... a decision that ignores the intent of federal procedures. It's obvious that this decision was made last year and the so-called environmental analysis was nothing more than an effort to protect the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from a lawsuit. For example, on the Mexican Spotted Owl endangered species decision, the same FWS argued that they needed time to update biological and economic information they had gathered in 1995. This is the same FWS that today says that the data we gathered seven or eight years ago on the wolf is the best science available."

The Service news release justified the quickly moving project, though, saying "translocating before denning and whelping promotes wild behavior of pups and increases the likelihood the wolves will remain near the release site."

Regarding the public comments the Service received, Brown said, "There were certainly things that we had to address." The fact that Becky Campbell of Gila Hot Springs has a special use permit allowing the grazing of horses in the Chicken Coop-Creel Canyons and Miller Springs areas "was probably the most significant piece of information" received, Brown said. The permit "was something we were not aware of when we did the original EIS."

According to Campbell, an outfitter, her permits allow her to run 25 horses in the Brushy Mountain/Miller Springs area from April 15 to Nov. 15 and 38 horses in the Woodland Park/Prior Creek area from Nov. 15 to April 15. The latter area is about 2 miles from the Chicken Coop-Creel Canyon area, Campbell said Tuesday.

She was notified Tuesday that wolves would be released into the area and said she plans to move the horses April 1. She said she is "also talking to the Forest Service to see if there is another pasture we could move them to -- at least for next winter until we see how things work out."

Brown said all releases of wolves will be coordinated to minimize interaction with livestock, especially immediately following release.

"It's important to understand that what we're trying to do with these wolves is put them in areas where their initial contact" after release is with wild game. The service aims to place wolves in areas that will be free of livestock at least during the first 30 days after release, she said, to insure they will have ample opportunity to learn to hunt wild game, preferably elk.

Brown added that, in the long term, wolves will inhabit areas that include livestock. But wolf depredation of horses is "very, very, very rare," she said, especially of adult horses. The horse grazing permits are "certainly not the type of concern we'd have if she (Campbell) was foaling out there."

Brown said the Service will coordinate with the Forest Service each time wolves are placed in one of the translocation sites. Another item of concern in the public input, she said, is the presence of some 50-100 feral cattle in the Miller Springs area. According to Andrea Martinez, public affairs officer for the Gila National Forest, the Forest Service has been hiring private contractors in past years to remove those cattle. She said the agency plans to begin the removal effort earlier this year to help accommodate the wolf translocation effort.

The wolves are being translocated within the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, which includes the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona and the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. Translocation is a management strategy the Service hopes will further the wolf recovery process involving transfer of wolves from the primary recovery area in the southern Apache-Sitgreaves into the secondary area -- including the Gila -- when the Service deems it necessary. Conflicts with livestock, mainly depredations of cattle, have been the main catalyst for the Service trapping wolves and proposing translocation.

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