WildEarth Guardians

Thursday, October 16, 2008
Arizona Game & Fish Commission Affirms Support for Mexican Wolf Recovery

Conservationists applaud call for new recovery plan
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

SANTA FE, N.M. -- Last week, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission affirmed its commitment to the success of the Mexican wolf recovery effort and adopted guidelines for advancing Mexican wolf recovery over the next five years. Key among the Commission’s recommendations was a call for the completion of a revised Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan-a responsibility of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Conservationists agreed that significant changes needed to be made to ensure the survival of Mexican wolves in the wild and that a new recovery plan is crucial to the successful recovery of the species.

"The recovery plan was written in 1982, and has not been updated since,” said Rob Edward, Director of Carnivore Recovery for WildEarth Guardians. “Even the original drafters of the plan foresaw a need for regular updates. Yet, the government is still trying to recover Mexican wolves using information that is over twenty years old.”In 1998, FWS announced plans to revise the existing recovery plan to “more precisely define population levels at which the Mexican wolf can be downlisted to ‘threatened’ status and removed from protection under the Act (i.e., delisted).” A subsequent effort to revise the recovery plan was begun in 2003 and indefinitely suspended in 2005. Unfortunately, the plan has never been revised.

The Commission’s recommendations emphasized the need for a results oriented management approach. Conservationists pointed-out that “results” for the recovery program must be clearly defined as an increasing number of wolves on the ground that are able to roam freely throughout the Southwest.

Dave Parsons, a wildlife biologist with The Rewilding Institute, greeted the Commission’s recommendations with guarded optimism. “At the end of 2007, twenty-six years after the adoption of a recovery plan and 10 years following initial reintroductions, the total wild population of Mexican wolves was only 52 animals, including a mere three successful breeding pairs. Progress toward recovery has stalled over the past four years. The Commission’s recommendation to jump-start recovery planning is an important step toward a much needed overhaul of the recovery program. We could lose the lobo in the wild for a second time if the government doesn’t get serious about recovery in the near future.”

Both Parsons and Edward indicated that conservationists in the Southwest are deeply committed to seeing the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program succeed. According to Edward, “The first step toward success for the lobo is to commit to restoring the species to all or a significant portion of its range in the Southwest, as mandated by law. All policy, including recovery plan revisions, should then flow from that vow of stewardship.”