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NM Wild Online Action Center

Act Now to Save the Mexican Gray Wolf

Elections are approaching - please urge your members of Congress to send a letter to the Fish and Wildlife Service demanding that they take immediate action to save Mexican gray wolves!
After they were nearly wiped off the face of the earth, Mexican gray wolves were returned to the wild in 1998 through the efforts of people like you. Today, they desperately need your help to bring them back from the brink of extinction. The situation is dire. The population is declining and only 42 Mexican wolves remained in the wilds of the Southwest in early 2010. This summer, two of those remaining wolves were found shot to death and a third wolf was found dead under suspicious circumstances, leaving gaping holes in families raising dependent pups. These highly endangered animals can be brought back from the brink of extinction and successfully recovered. But only if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for their recovery, takes the necessary actions. Your members of Congress can make that happen, and they need to hear from you.

Talking Points:

Mexican gray wolves are essential to restoring the balance of nature in our wild lands, but only 42 were counted in the Southwest at the beginning of this year. Three of those were found dead this summer under illegal and suspicious circumstances. These highly endangered animals can be brought back from the brink of extinction and successfully recovered, but only if the agency responsible for their recovery, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, takes the following necessary actions right away:

- Expedite a new Recovery Plan: The 1982 recovery plan for the Mexican wolf is out of date and lacks required criteria for recovery and de-listing. The Endangered Species Act requires a full roadmap to recovery for Mexican wolves, which will guide future management decisions. The FWS has been promising to get this underway, but has not yet established the Recovery Team which would write the new plan.

- Complete the process started in 2007 to amend the Reintroduction Project Rule: Existing rules that govern the Mexican wolf reintroduction project have proven inadequate to recover the Mexican wolf. At least 12,000 people participated in a 2007 National Environmental Policy Act scoping process for proposed rule changes, but the process has been stagnant since then. The Service claims it cannot move forward without funding for an expensive socio-economic study that is not needed to amend the rules for wolf recovery. The existing socio-economic study meets legal requirements. There is no justification for delaying critical rule changes which must move forward concurrently with the new Recovery Plan.

- Release the draft Environmental Assessment to allow direct releases of wolves into New Mexico. Right now, rules require that Mexican wolves born in captivity can only be released into Arizona. Enabling direct releases into New Mexico is critical to getting more wolves into the wild more quickly to boost numbers and gene diversity in the wild population. The Environmental Assessment has been drafted but not released. The FWS must release it immediately for public review and comments.

- Release wolves in captive breeding facilities into the wild. There are many wolves in captivity that are eligible and ready for release. New releases will increase wolf numbers and strengthen the wild population's genetic viability. Stepped up releases will also send a message to those killing the wolves that their actions will not eliminate wolves from the wild.

- Retrieve loaned telemetry receivers and reserve them for use by project personnel and legitimate researchers. In a recent report on causes of the wolves' population decline, the Fish and Wildlife Service named illegal killings as the leading cause of death. The Service has distributed telemetry receivers to area residents that are used to track the wolves' locations through their radio collars. Widely dispersed receivers in the hands of non-project personnel make radio collared wolves vulnerable to those who oppose wolves in the wild. 

Talking points provided by: www.mexicanwolves.org