Protection of Gray Wolf May Be Reduced
	From the July 2000

Tuesday, July 4, 2000


By Journal Staff and Wire Reports
Journal Staff and Wire Reports
    Federal protection of gray wolves might be relaxed in some parts of the country — but not in southwestern New Mexico — under a proposal expected soon from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
    The federal agency is preparing to change the listing of the gray wolf, once on the brink of extinction in the continental United States, from endangered to threatened, The New York Times reported Monday.
    But the Endangered Species Act status of the subspecies being reintroduced in New Mexico and Arizona — Mexican gray wolves — would not change.
    "We're not going to be impacted," said Vicki Fox, a spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque. "That's the bottom line."
    Nineteen Mexican gray wolves are in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico.
    In other parts of the country, however, the gray wolf population is abundant enough that federal officials believe they no longer need to be protected as endangered.
    The move would mean wolves outside the Southwest that kill livestock or threaten human affairs could be shooed away or shot by government agents.
    Northern New Mexico would be included in one region with Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and other states where the gray wolf would be downlisted.
    That's a problem, said wolf reintroduction crusader Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity in Silver City.
    "It essentially gerrymanders wolves to limit recovery," he said, adding that southern Colorado and northern New Mexico are good areas for future wolf reintroductions.
    When the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, the lower 48 states had about 400 gray wolves, primarily in Minnesota and Michigan. Now more than 3,500 roam in eight states.
    Some conservation groups say the plan would ease protection too soon — before the species has recolonized large sections of its old range. Ranchers and others counter that the laws protecting the wolves unfairly limit the rights of property owners.
    Once the new classification is formally announced, it will be subject to four months of public comment and eight months of internal discussions and possible revisions before it becomes law.

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