“Public values, the law, and the best available science are all telling U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do better, a lot better, for lobo recovery,” said Chris Smith, southern Rockies wildlife advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “This is the best opportunity for real recovery and I hope that opportunity is taken—U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service needs to end the cycle of litigation and do right by these iconic wolves.”

“Lois Crisler famously remarked, ‘Wilderness without wildlife is just scenery.’  In the same way, New Mexico and the southwest without the emblematic Mexican gray wolf would be a fundamentally diminished place,” said Mark Allison, Executive Director of New Mexico Wild. “We need lobos in the wild and it is up to all of us right now to let the agency know that the public expects a new management rule that will truly support a successful recovery effort — one based on science, not politics. Wolves belong.”

“The public is clearly and overwhelmingly saying we want Mexican gray wolves fully restored to the Southwest, and the court just as clearly directed the US Fish and Wildlife Service to revise this management rule to get there. There is simply no scientific or even a sensible basis for managing recovery by killing wolves, restricting their movement, disrupting their pack structure, and preventing wolf family releases from captivity into the wild—these are the tools of extinction. USFWS needs to finally write a rule that brings the Lobo back from the brink for good,” said Kelly Burke, Executive Director of Wild Arizona.

“People are saying loud and clear that we want more wolves in more places!” said Emily Renn, Executive Director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. “Given all the threats that Mexican wolves are facing, there is no need for the USFWS to continue to delay their recovery through inadequate and piecemeal management plans. It’s time to ensure Mexican wolves have a viable future in all suitable habitats, including the Grand Canyon region.”

Several specific changes were consistently referenced in comments to FWS:

The FWS must designate wild Mexican gray wolves as “essential” to the continued existence of the subspecies in the wild. Since the beginning of reintroductions, the wolves in the wild have been legally listed as “nonessential” to the survival of the subspecies. This classification can no longer be supported by the best available science.
There should be no cap or maximum number of Mexican wolves allowed in the wild.
Non-lethal methods must be prioritized over removing or killing wild Mexican gray wolves to resolve human-wolf conflicts.
Wolves should not be removed from the wild because they roamed beyond any geographic boundary.  In particular, wolves should not be removed from the wild for traveling into or inhabiting regions north of Interstate Highway 40, which have been determined by independent scientists to be critically important for full recovery of Mexican wolves in the U.S. Southwest.
Recovery efforts should facilitate natural connectivity between wolves in the U.S. and Mexico.
The USFWS must be proactive in support of establishing two additional subpopulations of at least 200 Mexican wolves in identified areas of suitable habitats in the U.S. Southwest, north of I-40.

Following its analysis of scoping comments, the FWS will prepare and issue a proposed revised management rule and an accompanying draft supplement to the 2014 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). These documents will be offered for another opportunity for public review and comment. This next step has not been scheduled but is expected before the end of the year. Following that review the USFWS will issue a final revised management rule and final supplement to the EIS. U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Zipps Court Order ruling stated that the 2015 10(j) rule requires this process and a final decision to be completed by May 2021.

Background on Mexican Gray Wolves and the 10(j) rule:

The lobo, or Mexican gray wolf, is the smallest, most genetically distinct, and one of the rarest subspecies of gray wolf. The subspecies was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1976, but recovery efforts have suffered without implementation of the recommended recovery actions by responsible wildlife advocates.

Although lobos once widely roamed across the southwestern United States and Mexico, the Mexican wolf was purposefully eradicated from the U.S. on behalf of American livestock interests. In 1998, and many years after the few remaining wolves were brought into captivity to save the species, the USFWS released eleven Mexican wolves to a small area on the border of Arizona and New Mexico.

Mexican wolves are at tremendous risk due to their small population size, limited gene pool, threats from trapping, and illegal killings. Wolves breed only once a year. At last count in February 2020, there were 163 known Mexican gray wolves in the wild.

The FWS last made changes to the “10(j) Management Rule” in 2015[1]. However, many scientists and conservationists concluded that the new management rules would eventually drive Mexican wolves to extinction, rather than facilitate their recovery as the Endangered Species Act requires. Conservation organizations immediately sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for not fulfilling its obligation to restore Mexican gray wolves to a healthy wild population that is no longer in danger of extinction. The court agreed with the conservation litigants, ruling that “[t]he 2015 10(j) rule fails to further the conservation of the Mexican wolf.”[2] and that “[b]y failing to provide for the population’s genetic health, FWS has actively imperiled the long-term viability of the species in the wild.”[3] U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Zipps issued a Court Order requiring the FWS to revise the rule by remedying several deficiencies in the current management rule, this time by applying the best available science.

More at www.mexicanwolves.org.

[1] Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Revision to the Regulations for the Nonessential Experimental Population of the Mexican Wolf ; Federal Register/Vol. 80, No. 11/Friday, January 16, 2015, pp.2512-2567

[2] Order at 25:13-14

[3] Order at 26:6-8

Contact:
Sandy Bahr, Grand Canyon Chapter Sierra Club, (602) 999-5790, sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org
Rebecca Bullis, Defenders of Wildlife, (202) 772-0295, rbullis@defenders.org
Kelly Burke, Wild Arizona, (928) 606-7870, kelly@wildarizona.org
Logan Glasenapp, New Mexico Wild, (414) 719-0352, logan@nmwild.org
Maggie Howell, Wolf Conservation Center, maggie@nywolf.org
David Parsons, Project Coyote / The Rewilding Institute, (505) 908-0468, dparsons@projectcoyote.org
Mary Katherine Ray, Rio Grande Chapter Sierra Club, mkrscrim@gmail.com
Emily Renn, Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, 928-202-1325, emily@gcwolfrecovery.org
Chris Smith, WildEarth Guardians, (505) 395-617, csmith@wildearthguardians.org