Below is the newest plans by US fish and wildlife to add wolves to Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. This after the recent news from Washington State. It is coming to all of our backyard now.
[FONT="]Southern Rockies Wolf Plans Dangerous? Read for yourself[/FONT]
[FONT="]Folks,[/FONT]
[FONT="]The official S. Rockies wolf documents have now been released to the public.[FONT="] CLICK HERE[/FONT] to visit [FONT="]biggameforever.org/blog[/FONT] where you can download and read the proposal. Here's how these documents were released to the public.[/FONT]
[FONT="]On December 2, 2011 Arizona Fish and Game commission released official documents, which would mandate wolf proliferation across the Southern Rockies and into Texas. The documents have been confirmed by several sources, including a regional director for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service testifying at Friday's Arizona Fish and Game Commission hearing.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Despite denials by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding these plans, it has become clear that these plans are moving forward. This official "draft" was released for official comment by members of the wolf recovery team in the last couple of weeks. In the wake of criticism by western states, USFWS' national director accused states of "mischaracterizing" the Southern Rockies wolf plans. These leaked documents confirm that the criticism of these plans by western states were well founded.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Here are several quotes from the document that illustrate the dangerous nature of these plans:[/FONT]
[FONT="](1)[FONT="]An acknowledgment of the intent to force wolves into Texas[/FONT]
"Several questions at the August recovery team meeting focused on...availability of suitable habitat in Mexico and the United States, especially Texas." "Approximately 24,000 square kilometers of potentially suitable [wolf] habitat...occurs in western Texas."[/FONT]
[FONT="](2)[FONT="]Mandated wolf proliferation across the entire southern Rockies[/FONT]
"Based on the material below we recommend that the Mexican wolf recovery area include "Mexico...western Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and the southern portions of Utah and Colorado."[/FONT]
[FONT="](3)[FONT="]Dramatic increases in forced wolf populations minimum numbers[/FONT]
"Three major zones of suitable wolf habitat exist in the area encompassing Arizona, New Mexico, southern Colorado and southern Utah. Under current habitat conditions, it is estimated that over 1,000 wolves could inhabit this large area." This is more than triple the number of wolves that were required in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.[/FONT]
[FONT="](4)[FONT="] Mandating Mexican wolves OUTSIDE their historic range using the Endangered Species Act[/FONT]
The report spends several pages trying to justify mandated Mexican wolf populations outside their historic range. The report concludes "recovering [Mexican Wolves] outside purported historical ranges...may establish a useful and critically important precedent." Given demonstrable damage from invasive species, most biologists we have spoken with feel this is a slippery slope and a dangerous precedent. The areas outside of historic range includes Utah and Colorado.[/FONT]
[FONT="](5) [FONT="]Plans designed to prevent S. Rockies wolves from ever being managed by Western states[/FONT]
The devil is in the details. Legally, no delisting can occur until Mexican wolves are recovered across a "substantial portion of the range." 90% of Mexican wolf range is in Mexico. With no plans to recover wolves in Mexico, there is little hope that wolves in the Southern Rockies would ever be delisted. The legal mechanism of preventing wolf management in the future is by eliminating the safe-guards provided by "non-essential experimental" status and instead create a "subspecies" listing. A "subspecies" listing would prevent delisting even if populations objectives are reached in the Southern Rockies. As a result, these plans provide little in the way of safeguards for livestock and wildlife.[/FONT]
[FONT="](6) [FONT="]The plans would result in "swamping" of Mexican Wolf Genetics[/FONT]
Despite claims these plans are about recovering Mexican wolves, Wolf specialists have confirmed that interbreeding with Northern Gray wolves could overwhelm Mexican wolf genetics in as short as 20 years.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Folks these plans are dangerous. These plans do not protect wildlife. These plans do not protect livestock. These plans would violate well-established limitations on federal authority. These plans are based on a dramatic overreaching.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Please help us stop these plans from being forced on the good people of the Western United States.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Ryan Benson
[FONT="]http://biggameforever.org/[/FONT]
[FONT="][email protected][/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT="]Southern Rockies Wolf Plans Dangerous? Read for yourself[/FONT]
[FONT="]Folks,[/FONT]
[FONT="]The official S. Rockies wolf documents have now been released to the public.[FONT="] CLICK HERE[/FONT] to visit [FONT="]biggameforever.org/blog[/FONT] where you can download and read the proposal. Here's how these documents were released to the public.[/FONT]
[FONT="]On December 2, 2011 Arizona Fish and Game commission released official documents, which would mandate wolf proliferation across the Southern Rockies and into Texas. The documents have been confirmed by several sources, including a regional director for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service testifying at Friday's Arizona Fish and Game Commission hearing.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Despite denials by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding these plans, it has become clear that these plans are moving forward. This official "draft" was released for official comment by members of the wolf recovery team in the last couple of weeks. In the wake of criticism by western states, USFWS' national director accused states of "mischaracterizing" the Southern Rockies wolf plans. These leaked documents confirm that the criticism of these plans by western states were well founded.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Here are several quotes from the document that illustrate the dangerous nature of these plans:[/FONT]
[FONT="](1)[FONT="]An acknowledgment of the intent to force wolves into Texas[/FONT]
"Several questions at the August recovery team meeting focused on...availability of suitable habitat in Mexico and the United States, especially Texas." "Approximately 24,000 square kilometers of potentially suitable [wolf] habitat...occurs in western Texas."[/FONT]
[FONT="](2)[FONT="]Mandated wolf proliferation across the entire southern Rockies[/FONT]
"Based on the material below we recommend that the Mexican wolf recovery area include "Mexico...western Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and the southern portions of Utah and Colorado."[/FONT]
[FONT="](3)[FONT="]Dramatic increases in forced wolf populations minimum numbers[/FONT]
"Three major zones of suitable wolf habitat exist in the area encompassing Arizona, New Mexico, southern Colorado and southern Utah. Under current habitat conditions, it is estimated that over 1,000 wolves could inhabit this large area." This is more than triple the number of wolves that were required in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.[/FONT]
[FONT="](4)[FONT="] Mandating Mexican wolves OUTSIDE their historic range using the Endangered Species Act[/FONT]
The report spends several pages trying to justify mandated Mexican wolf populations outside their historic range. The report concludes "recovering [Mexican Wolves] outside purported historical ranges...may establish a useful and critically important precedent." Given demonstrable damage from invasive species, most biologists we have spoken with feel this is a slippery slope and a dangerous precedent. The areas outside of historic range includes Utah and Colorado.[/FONT]
[FONT="](5) [FONT="]Plans designed to prevent S. Rockies wolves from ever being managed by Western states[/FONT]
The devil is in the details. Legally, no delisting can occur until Mexican wolves are recovered across a "substantial portion of the range." 90% of Mexican wolf range is in Mexico. With no plans to recover wolves in Mexico, there is little hope that wolves in the Southern Rockies would ever be delisted. The legal mechanism of preventing wolf management in the future is by eliminating the safe-guards provided by "non-essential experimental" status and instead create a "subspecies" listing. A "subspecies" listing would prevent delisting even if populations objectives are reached in the Southern Rockies. As a result, these plans provide little in the way of safeguards for livestock and wildlife.[/FONT]
[FONT="](6) [FONT="]The plans would result in "swamping" of Mexican Wolf Genetics[/FONT]
Despite claims these plans are about recovering Mexican wolves, Wolf specialists have confirmed that interbreeding with Northern Gray wolves could overwhelm Mexican wolf genetics in as short as 20 years.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Folks these plans are dangerous. These plans do not protect wildlife. These plans do not protect livestock. These plans would violate well-established limitations on federal authority. These plans are based on a dramatic overreaching.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Please help us stop these plans from being forced on the good people of the Western United States.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Ryan Benson
[FONT="]http://biggameforever.org/[/FONT]
[FONT="][email protected][/FONT][/FONT]
