PRESS RELEASE LINK

For Immediate Release, July 3, 2008

Contact:

Rob Edward, WildEarth Guardians, (303) 573-4898 ext. 762, redward@wildearthguardians.org

Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity, (575) 534-0360, michaelr@biologicaldiversity.org

Greta Anderson, Western Watersheds Project, (520) 623-1878

Daniel R. Patterson, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, (520) 906-2159

Federal Cash Brings Reward for Information on Illegal Wolf Killings to $50,000

SILVER CITY, N.M.— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has offered a reward of $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the illegal killing of Mexican gray wolves, adding to the $40,000 already pledged by wildlife and conservation groups. In addition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed three additional wolf deaths due to illegal killing.

The announcement comes at a time when conservationists are redoubling efforts to end federal killing and capture of Mexican wolves to address ongoing population declines.

“Recent polling shows overwhelming support for Mexican gray wolves among Southwest voters,” said Rob Edward, director of carnivore recovery for WildEarth Guardians. “We need to stop killing and removing wolves from the wild – whether legally or illegally – in order to let the population rebound.”

Edward insists that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must consider the additive effect that federal “removals” have in the context of the illegal killing of wolves. He and other conservationists point to the fact that the imperiled Mexican wolf population has declined in three of the past four years, primarily due to such policies.

The latest government census of the wolf population, from January 2008, found 52 wolves and just three breeding pairs. Last year the federal government removed 20 wolves from the wild.

Greta Anderson, of the Western Watersheds Project in Tucson, added: “Although the public strongly supports the effort to restore the lobo to the Southwest, that support is not resonating with the government. They should be as committed to ending their own policies that harm these wolves as they are to finding those responsible for the illegal killings.”

Anderson ’s sentiments were echoed by Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity in Silver City, New Mexico. “This population could probably survive the poachers if the government wasn’t trapping and shooting so many wolves. Federal predator control was justified on the grounds that it helps wolf recovery by reducing poaching. Instead, Mexican wolves are illegally killed at a higher rate than any other endangered species in the nation.”

Robinson added: “The Fish and Wildlife Service should pledge that for every wolf illegally killed, two more will be released in its place. That would prove a substantial deterrent.”

“It’s un-American and unethical for poachers and the feds to continue to gun down Mexican wolves,” said Daniel Patterson, ecologist and Southwest director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and a hunter who formerly worked with the Bureau of Land Management. “No amount of money can bring back murdered lobos, but the reward can bring in the killers. Whoever knows about these killings can make $50,000 just by telling the truth and doing the right thing, which is great for them and the public interest.”

Killing a Mexican wolf is a violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. It can result in criminal penalties of up to $50,000 and/or not more than one year in jail; and/or a civil penalty of up to $25,000.

If anyone has information on these killings, contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at any of the following numbers: (480) 967-7900 (Mesa, AZ) (928) 339-4232 (Alpine, AZ); or (505) 346-7828 (Albuquerque, NM).

The non-governmental organizations contributing $40,000 to the reward fund are Animal Defense League of Arizona, Animal Protection of New Mexico, Arizona Zoological Society (in memory of Mike Seidman), Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Grand Canyon Wildands Council, Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, Sierra Club (Grand Canyon and Rincon chapters), Sky Islands Alliance, and Southwest Environmental Center.

read complete article here

Recent wolf sightings in Washington’s Methow Valley are leading the area’s producers to worry about potential loss and imposed regulations from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“We’re worried that a bunch of regulations will be forced on us if there are wolves in the valley, and most producers in the area don’t want to sacrifice their freedom as to how they use their land,” said Bill White, a cattle producer outside of Twisp, Wash.

White has captured several photos of what appears to be wolves by using a tree-mounted trail camera.

Land-use regulations may be put into place where active dens are located, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The department cannot impose regulations on privately owned land, but can request activities being conducted around confirmed den sites be delayed until later in the summer when the wolves will be away from den sites. Timber harvests can be delayed for the same reasons.

However, with no confirmed breeding pairs, these regulations cannot be enforced.

read the full article

A possible gray wolf has been sighted on a ranch in northern New Mexico, raising the prospect that wolves may have migrated into the state from the Northern Rockies where they were reintroduced more than a decade ago.

There’s been no confirmed gray wolf in the wild in New Mexico since the animals were exterminated from the state in the early and mid-1900s.

The animal was seen several times and photographed on Vermejo Park Ranch, which is owned by media mogul Ted Turner. It was first spotted about a month ago, but government biologists have not been able to capture the animal to obtain genetic material to confirm whether it’s a wolf.

download the PDF from Montana FWP site.

There are three hearings planned for July 16 (Bozeman), July 17 (Missoula), July 18 (Helena). As a lawsuit challenges the wolves’ classification as an endangered species in the Northern Rockies. The change will shift the management of the wolves to a state level (Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana) from a federal level.

If you can please attend the hearings. It is very important that people come out to support the wolves and help all parties come to agreeable terms that work best for the all of the animals of the wild.

Is gray wolf making a comeback? - -article link

by K.C. Mehaffey, The Wenatchee World

TWISP — One or more packs of gray wolves may be living in north-central Washington’s Methow Valley, which would make them the first resident population of the endangered species in Washington state since before 1930, a state biologist says.

“There’s certainly a distinct possibility that we actually have some wolves here, and they may be reproducing,” said Scott Fitkin, wildlife biologist for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife in Winthrop.

Packers have made numerous reports of wolves in the high country in the past couple of years, and residents have made increasing reports in lower elevations, he said.

Fitkin said his agency is reviewing two photographs and hopes to gather hair samples or feces to confirm through genetic analysis that the animals seen in areas between the Twisp River and Libby Creek, about 50 miles north of Wenatchee, are gray wolves.

The wolves captured on film have a brown color to their coat, causing biologists to wonder if they might be hybrid wolves that have bred with dogs or coyotes. However, some gray wolves in British Columbia also have a similar tawny-brown color mixed in with their black, gray and white fur, he said.

Wolves are about four times as large as coyotes, with a male generally weighing 100 pounds or more. Fitkin said photographs have confirmed the presence of gray wolves in northeastern Washington, but those wolves would not be endangered.

In March, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the gray wolf from the endangered list in Washington state east of Highway 97 because recovered populations in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are expected to repopulate that area of the state.

They are still considered endangered in north-central Washington.

By 1930, wolves were completely killed off in Washington state, through shooting, trapping, poisoning and government bounties, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Fitkin said there have been reliable wolf sightings in the Methow dating back to the early 1990s, but only sporadic, unconfirmed reports of wolf packs.

“My suspicion is, based on the sighting history, its development is very similar to how recolonization in the Rockies occurred,” he said. “This is looking like we very well may have some wolves on the landscape.”

Bill White, a Twisp cattleman and cougar tracker, is also convinced that wolves are living in the Methow. White said he saw tracks this winter as large as those left by a cougar, only more oval in shape, with distinct toenail marks left in the snow. He said his son also spotted wolves.

State and federal officials questioned the sightings, he said, so he set up a remote camera and caught them on film. He said he also gathered hair at one location.

White said he’s not happy about the sightings, worrying that gray wolves will create more restrictions on public land.

“Are they going to rope it off, and say no more logging or hunting or snowmobiling?” he asked.

“Everybody’s not supportive” of repopulating the area with wolves, he said, adding, “The cattleman’s the only one that’s going to make a sacrifice.”

Fitkin said there’s no question that wolves will kill pets and even livestock, particularly if they can’t find enough of their usual prey, which would be deer in the Methow Valley.

However, Fitkin said having endangered gray wolves in the Methow Valley wouldn’t create significant land use restrictions, because wolves’ habitat needs are not specific.

“As long as they have an adequate prey base, which are deer, and don’t get killed,” recovery should take care of itself, he said.