WildEarth Guardians

Monday, June 11, 2007
Feds Asked To Include Lynx In New Mexico

Comments on 5 year status review argue that the wildcat's habitat extends well into north-central New Mexico, as far south as the City of Santa Fe
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

Additional Contact: Matt Bishop, Esq., Western Environmental Law Center, 505-751-0351 Bryan Bird, WildEarth Guardians, (505) 988-9126 x157, bbird@fguardians.org

Santa Fe, New Mexico-Conservation groups argued today that the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) must update classification and status for the threatened Canada lynx to include its habitat in northern New Mexico. The FWS maintains that lynx have no "Endangered Species Act (ESA) status" in New Mexico. The Southern Rocky Mountains do not abruptly end at the Colorado State line. Rather, the Southern Rockies' San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountains - both of which include contiguous suitable habitat for lynx - extend well into north-central New Mexico, as far south as the City of Santa Fe. The organizations, including WildEarth Guardians, Sinapu, Center for Native Ecosystems, Animal Protection of New Mexico, Animal Protection Institute, and Carson Forest Watch, signed onto the comment letter formally requesting that the FWS take immediate steps to update and amend the lynx's listing status and range to include the mountainous regions of north-central New Mexico.

"Using artificial political boundaries such as the Colorado State line to divide one biological grouping of lynx in the Southern Rockies and deprive lynx entering New Mexico of protections under the Endangered Species Act has no basis in science, policy, or law," said Matthew Bishop, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center in Taos, NM representing the organizations.

The conservation groups argue that including New Mexico within the lynx's listing status and range is: (1) required by law; (2) supported by the "best scientific and commercial data available;" and (3) entirely necessary to ensure the survival and recovery of lynx throughout the Southern Rockies. Given this habitat connectivity in the Southern Rockies, it is no surprise that approximately 81 lynx released into southwestern Colorado' San Juan Mountains by the Colorado Division of Wildlife ("CDOW") have traveled, and will continue to travel, into New Mexico's San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. For southernly movements into New Mexico, this corridor is "down the east side of Wolf Creek Pass to the southeast to the Conejos River Valley." Over the last several years, at least 6 lynx have been killed in New Mexico.

"These magnificent wildcats are making their way back to their native home in New Mexico," said Bryan Bird, Public Lands Director at WildEarth Guardians. "The science has never been clearer: these cats were historically in the state and consequently require the safety net provided by the Endangered Species Act until their populations are stable again."

Despite the well-documented presence of lynx and their principle prey-base, snowshoe hare, in the state, the FWS continues to claim that lynx in New Mexico have no legal protections under the Endangered Species Act and thus the agencies that manage its habitat assert no responsibility under the Act. The FWS's determination that the cat should not be protected in New Mexico relied in part on information intended for K-12 students and teachers. Yet, the Lynx Science Report, authored by federal agency biologists and the most current and comprehensive compilation of science on lynx, clearly establishes that lynx historically inhabited New Mexico.

"Pursuant to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's current interpretation of the lynx's listing status, a radio-collared lynx reintroduced into Colorado's San Juan Mountains that chases a snowshoe hare into New Mexico's San Juan Mountains (i.e., along contiguous, suitable habitat) will lose its protective status during the time it spends in New Mexico." This "absurd result," said Bishop, "is contrary to the conservation and recovery goals of the ESA."

When the FWS recognizes that the lynx is covered by the ESA in New Mexico, as the organizations have suggested, then federal land and wildlife management agencies will be required to consider the impacts of their actions on the cat. In 2003, the same coalition of groups unsuccessfully sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services over that agency's refusal to review the impacts of its lethal predator control programs on the lynx in northern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado and in 2004 unsuccessfully sued the USFS for failing to consider lynx in their forests plans in northern New Mexico.

Representing WildEarth Guardians (Santa Fe, NM), Center for Native Ecosystems (Paonia, CO), Animal Protection of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM), Carson Forest Watch (Llano, NM), Sinapu (Boulder, CO), and Animal Protection Institute (Sacramento, CA), the Western Environmental Law Center's Southwest Office (Taos, NM) sent the comments on the 5-year status review to the United States Fish & Wildlife Service in Helena, Montana.