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60-day public comment period ends with outpouring of support for wolf recovery

TUCSON, Arizona (June 15, 2020) – On April 15, 2020, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) opened a 60-day “scoping” period to receive public comments on needed changes to a management rule that will determine the recovery success of Mexican gray wolves in the southwestern United States. This revision follows on a court order to remedy the rule’s deficiencies and use the best available science. Despite the challenges to public outreach in the midst of the global pandemic and stay-at-home orders, supporters of effective science-informed recovery of the critically endangered “lobos” submitted more than 40,000 comments.

By initial review, the large majority of the comments submitted appear to be in support of the (FWS) taking all crucial and necessary measures to restore the endangered subspecies’ declining genetic health, allowing unrestricted dispersal to critically important habitats, and removing the current population cap limiting the U.S. population to only 325 wolves. Proponents are also calling for an “essential” status designation for Mexican gray wolves.

For far too long, the FWS has bent to the pressures of the livestock industry by lethally removing wolves, despite evidence that these actions can have long-lasting effects on the wolves left in the wild and have also not been proven to be effective at reducing livestock losses over time. Polling shows more than two-thirds of voters in Arizona and New Mexico support recovery of Mexican wolves to restore the balance of nature in the Southwest.

In addition to the thousands of public comments, numerous non-governmental conservation organizations submitted substantial comments with detailed science-based recommendations for ensuring that the revised management rule leads to recovery of Mexican wolves in the wild, as required by the Endangered Species Act. Furthermore, comments authored by David Parsons, biologist and former Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator for the FWS, on behalf of Project Coyote and The Rewilding Institute were endorsed by more than 100 independent and academic scientists.

“The Federal Court found the current Mexican wolf management rule both legally and scientifically flawed.  The Court Order specifically identifies many deficiencies in the rule that must be remedied such that the revised rule will improve the Lobos’ genetic health and lead to their full recovery.  Astonishingly, the USFWS has already officially announced that they plan to ignore key requirements ordered by the Court, leaving Mexican wolves in danger of extinction,” said David Parsons, former USFWS Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator.

“A small group of special interests stifled the recovery of the Mexican gray wolf,” said Bryan Bird, Southwest program director for Defenders of Wildlife. “This is a call from the public that recovery efforts should be driven by sound science not politics.”

“The public understands that the wild population of Mexican wolves is essential to the recovery of these endangered animals—they have voiced that clearly in these comments,” said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon (Arizona) Chapter. “It is time, it is past time, for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to recognize it too and to manage Mexican wolves for recovery, not extinction.”

“Every voice raised in support of wildlife can make a difference and Americans overwhelmingly support Mexican wolf recovery,” said Maggie Howell, Executive Director of the Wolf Conservation Center. “We’re counting on the USFWS to take notice and follow the best available science to ensure that the world’s most endangered gray wolves remain a living, breathing part of the southwestern landscape.”