Conservationists Intervene in Lawsuit to Protect Mexican Gray Wolves

The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife --
represented by the Western Environmental Law Center -- today intervened
in a lawsuit that seeks the trapping and shooting of endangered Mexican gray wolves, the third since reintroduction began in 1998.

Catron and Otero counties in New Mexico, two livestock
industry associations and three ranching outfits with grazing permits
in the Gila National Forest are suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to overturn
decisions made by the Service not to trap or shoot wolves from the San
Mateo and Middle Fork packs. The plaintiffs allege a violation of the
National Environmental Policy Act and seek legal fees under the Equal
Access to Justice Act.

"We are intervening in part to prevent any settlement
agreement that would rid our public lands of the Mexican gray wolf. In
order for wolf recovery to be successful, it's vital that we keep
political forces from influencing what should be a science-based
process," said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity.

The lawsuit appears aimed at undermining a 2009
settlement agreement between the conservation groups and the Fish and
Wildlife Service in which the agency agreed to reassume the lead role
in Mexican wolf recovery and to end the controversial "wolf-control"
rule, Standard Operating Procedure 13 (SOP 13), which required
permanently removing a wolf from the wild -- either lethally or through
capture -- if the animal were suspected to have killed three cattle in a
single year.

The Fish and Wildlife Service stopped trapping and
shooting Mexican wolves for "control" purposes in 2008. Prior to that,
the agency authorized the shooting of 11 wolves and trapped, but never
released, another 46. Eighteen others died as a result of captures.
(The agency still captures wolves on occasion for veterinary purposes.)

"The Fish and Wildlife Service made the right call when
it stopped wolf removals," said Eva Sargent, Defenders of Wildlife's
Southwest program director. "We are intervening on the side of the Fish
and Wildlife Service to defend that decision, so the service can move
forward with developing a science-based plan with clear goals for wolf
recovery. With the Mexican wolf on the edge of extinction, every effort
must be made to keep wolves in the wild and bolster the population."

"We are intervening to help defend the agency's actions
against plaintiffs' unsubstantiated claims, as well as to continue our
steadfast efforts to ensure that the Mexican wolf reintroduction and
recovery program is carried forward in the most beneficial manner for
the species," said Geoff Hickcox, attorney for the Western
Environmental Law Center, which represents the interveners.

"This lawsuit, like the previous anti-wolf suits that
were dismissed, is without merit," said Robinson. "But that doesn't
mean that the threat isn't real. The Mexican wolf can ill afford
further delay in management reforms and development of a science-based
recovery plan, and we are concerned that the Fish and Wildlife Service
will seize on this mischief as a new excuse for longstanding,
inexcusable lethargy and inaction."

Background on the Mexican Gray Wolf
Since the 1990s, the Fish and Wildlife Service has
repeatedly stated that it will prepare a new Mexican wolf recovery plan
to bring modern science and clear goals to the recovery program and
replace a 1982 Mexican wolf recovery plan that contained no discussion
of genetics and no recovery criteria to guide eventual delisting. In
1995, the agency completed a draft new recovery plan but never approved
it. In January 2005, the agency suspended meetings of its recovery
team, which was close to developing a new draft, and in July 2010
formally disbanded that team. It has not yet convened a new recovery
team despite repeated proclamations that it will do so.

At the last count in January 2010, biologists could find
just 42 Mexican gray wolves and only two breeding pairs in Arizona
and New Mexico -- a dangerously low number that scientists say contributes to ongoing genetic inbreeding
that is causing low birth and pup survival rates, creating a downward
demographic spiral. The population dropped by 19 percent between 2009
and 2010. A new count will be conducted in January 2011.

In May this year, the Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged that the Mexican wolf reintroduction program was "at risk of failure."