WildEarth Guardians

Friday, July 7, 2006
WildEarth Guardians: NM Endangered species list falls short on protection

Listing at the state level is a small but obvious first step signaling the need to reform policies that are ushering native wildlife toward extinction
Contact: The New Mexican

WildEarth Guardians, a nonprofit conservation group, says New Mexico's endangered-species list continues to fail to protect some 30 species including the lynx and the Chiricahua leopard frog.

The group made its statement Thursday after looking over the state Department of Game and Fish draft biennial review of the endangered-species list.

The review only recommends uplisting species from threatened to endangered or downlisting them, department spokesman Martin Frentzel said. No endangered species can be added or removed in the review. Two species, the Pecos bluntnose shiner and the Arizona grasshopper sparrow, are recommended for uplisting to endangered by the game department. The piping plover is recommended for downlisting to threatened.

WildEarth Guardians called conservation steps listed for species in the biennial review "absent or too vague to be meaningful." The WildEarth Guardians' review found eight New Mexico species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act are not listed by the state.

The state Game Commission will hear the biennial review Thursday. The public will have 14 more days after that to comment on the review before it is presented for final commission approval.

To read and make comments on the review, go to www.wildlife.state.nm.us.

Copyright 2006 New Mexican - Reprinted with permission