WildEarth Guardians

Thursday, January 24, 2008
Forest Service Cows to Special Interests in Ongoing Battle over New Mexico's Wolf Country

WildEarth Guardians determined to hold the line for wolves on the T Bar grasslands
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

Santa Fe, NM - In the heart of the Mexican gray wolf recovery zone, the 77,000-acre T Bar Allotment is one of the last best places for the Mexican wolf. At stake are vast, open expanses of grassland sitting just adjacent to the only ungrazed portion of the Gila Wilderness. While biologists view the T Bar grasslands as some of the best wolf habitat in the Southwest, Catron County sees them as a premiere feedlot for cattle. Both the Catron County Commission and the environmental advocacy group WildEarth Guardians recently appealed the Forest Service's decision to continue the grazing status quo on the allotment. WildEarth Guardians wants fewer cows and more wolf protection on the T Bar while Catron County seeks increased grazing and predator control.

The Forest Service's decision not to graze more cattle on the T Bar grasslands was made in response to comments from WildEarth Guardians and others. However, Catron County's appeal created enough pressure for the Forest Service to back down from its conclusion that the resources on the T Bar, including wildlife and endangered species, would not benefit from intensified grazing. Judging by its latest disposition in a long and confused string of land management decisions for this increasingly important stretch of wild land, the Forest Service may actually increase stocking rates above what it had previously considered, thus delivering a severe blow to an already faltering wolf recovery program.

Because wolves are routinely removed from their recovery zone for conflicting with Forest Service permitted cattle, how the Forest Service runs its grazing program on the Gila has a tremendous impact on whether New Mexico's wolves can actually bounce back from centuries of human persecution on behalf of livestock interests. WildEarth Guardians says the Forest Service has yet to consider how its poor management practices are hindering Mexican wolf recovery, and that wolves are being pushed to extinction as a result.

While no more than 59 Mexican wolves have ever existed in the recovery area at any one given time, the government has removed approximately 55 for conflicts with Forest Service permitted livestock. "The feds' strategy of killing wolves to achieve rancher tolerance isn't working," says Melissa Hailey, WildEarth Guardians' Grazing Reform Program Director. "Mexican wolves need more cow-free places in order to recover from the heated conflicts with livestock permittees that are resulting in too many wolf removals and deaths." WildEarth Guardians argued in its appeal on the T Bar that conflicts can be better avoided with sound animal husbandry practices and reducing or eliminating cattle from the recovery area.

The Forest Service's likely increase in stocking rates on the T Bar is just the latest example of Catron County's stranglehold on the Mexican gray wolf recovery program. "The Sagebrush Rebellion is alive and well in Catron County," Hailey says. "Whether it's insisting that the Forest Service put more cows in the Gila or demanding that the Fish and Wildlife Service kill wolves for no reason, this handful of individuals is gaining an ever growing monopoly over New Mexico's public land and resources."

WildEarth Guardians is leading the charge against Catron County and the Forest Service to regain public lands for the public interest. Although WildEarth Guardians believes that voluntary grazing permit retirement is the long-term solution to wolf-cattle conflicts in the Gila, it is turning up the heat on grazing in the meantime. The group has sued the county Commission over its anti-wolf ordinance and trapping activities, and is also in litigation with the Forest Service over its rubber stamp of grazing on over half a million acres of the wolf recovery area. Stated Hailey, "Although we sue as a last resort, until permit retirement becomes a reality, we are determined to hold the line for wolves on the T Bar grasslands."