Hundreds Turn Out For Wolf Public Hearing
	From the March 2000

By Lisa Parker
Sun-News

At what could be the best attended public hearing on the Mexican wolf reintroduction since the program began, opponents of the effort outnumbered supporters about three to two.

An estimated 800 people showed up for Thursday night's hearing, originally scheduled to be held at Western New Mexico University's Light Hall. The hearing was to begin at 7 p.m.; by 6:30 it was becoming apparent that the small auditorium would not begin to hold all the people wanting to attend. Officials with the fire department began considering moving the meeting to the considerably larger Fine Arts Center Theater on campus.

Attorney Lotario D. Ortega facilitated the hearing, the second in as many nights to allow the public to give input on the Feb. 10 Environmental Assessment for the Translocation of Mexican Wolves.

It was reported that 300 to 400 people attended the first hearing held Wednesday in Reserve.

The scope of the hearing was to gather comment on three alternatives presented in the environmental assessment: "soft" release of wolves into the Gila Wilderness; "hard" release; and no translocation of wolves into the Gila Wilderness.

Shortly after 7 p.m. Ortega called the meeting to order, explaining that all comments received would be recorded verbatim by a court recorder, and people would only be allowed to speak after being called by Ortega to the podium. A few members of the audience complained almost immediately, saying it was not legal to go forward with the meeting with people still waiting outside to get into the building. At this point, all 280-some seats were taken --some with people sitting on laps --and people lined the walls around the auditorium shoulder to shoulder. The aisles were also filling as people continued to stream in.

One man yelled, "There are a whole lot of people out there who would like to get into this meeting." Another man estimated 200 people were waiting to get in.

Within minutes Ortega announced the hearing was being moved to the Fine Arts Center Theater. In surprisingly orderly fashion, hundreds of people walked across campus, found their new seats, and the meeting was back under way by 7:30.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Wendy Brown, the coordinator of the Mexican wolf reintroduction project, gave background on the evolution of the program, and said, "Never do I believe did we do a hearing that was attended by as many people as this one."

She said 42 wolves have been introduced into the primary wolf recovery area of the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area (including the Apache and Gila National Forests) since January 1998. That area is located in the southern Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest of Arizona. Only seven of those wolves are currently free ranging, she said, primarily because of a very high recapture rate in 1999 and 2000 made necessary by conflicts between wolves and livestock.

Wolves proposed for translocation to the Gila Wilderness are those that have been recaptured from the wild for "management purposes." The prevalent management purpose at this time is to distance wolves from livestock and humans.

Brown said more than 5,000 written comments on the environmental assessment have been received since it was drawn. Many of the comments, she said, are not within the scope of the input requested, dealing instead with whether wolves should be reintroduced at all. She said most of these comments "boiled down" to a few major concerns: livestock depredation; attacks by wolves on humans; is there adequate prey to support the Service's goal of 100 wolves in the Blue Range area?; and how is the intensive management of the introduced wolves affecting their recovery?

Ortega reminded the audience that comments should deal with one of the three options: soft release, wherein wolves would initially be kept in pens in the area to be released, with public access to the area restricted while the wolves are in the pens; hard release, which would release wolves directly into the wild; and no reintroduction to the Gila.

The public comment period, extended until 10 p.m. to accommodate as many people as possible, was punctuated with wolf howls, wild applause and one standing ovation. But little of the comment made was relevant to the release options. Speakers gave their comments, limited to two minutes, and said which option they supported. By 9:25, 14 people had voiced support for soft release of the wolves, one person supported hard release, and 27 people had spoken in favor of not reintroducing wolves into the Gila.

At least one person did not make an oral comment at Thursday's meeting. Ron Henderson, a Silver City resident and retired Forest Service employee who has been following the issue closely, attended the meeting in Reserve on Wednesday. That meeting, he said, was punctuated with cat calls, booing and applause while comments were being made.

"I just refused to give an oral presentation (Thursday) because of the way the meeting was conducted in Reserve last night," he said. "I deserve the respect to present my view whether they're pro- or anti-."

He submitted his comments in writing, along with a letter complaining about the conduct at the Reserve meeting.

Two people were escorted from the meeting by police, including J. Zane Walley, who witnesses said threw a punch at another man.

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