ALBUQUERQUE — Environmental groups say that under President Bush, federal agencies have caved to ranchers’ demands and failed to adequately protect endangered species—such as the Mexican gray wolf—as required by the Endangered Species Act.

So more and more they’re suing to force the government to follow through on its own plans for recovery of endangered species. In New Mexico, WildEarth Guardians has recently filed three lawsuits in an attempt to protect the endangered Mexican gray wolf, or lobo, here.

Other examples of such activity are rife: After a long battle, Greenpeace and other groups succeeded in getting Endangered Species Act protection for polar bears in May. In early July two other conservation groups filed suit demanding that the Fish and Wildlife Service overturn rules they say would threaten the bears. And last week gray wolves in the Northern Rockies temporarily regained endangered species status as a result of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of environmental organizations, including Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council.

"The courts tell them what to do because, left to their own devices, they do nothing," says Melissa Hailey, staff attorney for WildEarth Guardians, says of the federal agencies. Based in Santa Fe, the group is pursuing two of the three Mexican gray wolf cases alone and has partnered with other groups on the third case, which will be heard in Tucson.

While environmental groups say going to court acts as a bulwark against lax oversight and law breaking, opponents sees these suits as publicity stunts and even harmful to the animals they purport to aid.

"They do it for the publicity," says Catron County Manager Bill Aymar, who believes that environmental groups don’t really have the welfare of wolves in mind. "The wolf is a pawn in this game. And nobody wins."

Critics like Aymar charge that lawsuits over endangered species pull precious resources away from federal agencies tasked with protecting them.

“If the program has to stay, let them turn lose as many wolves as they want to, and let people shoot them,” Catron County Commissioner Ed Wehrheim told NMI in June. "There’s no difference between a wolf and a burglar trying to break into your house and hurt you. I wouldn’t hesitate a second to shoot him."

Welcome to the polarized world of the Mexican wolf recovery program.

The ranchers’ urge to be rid of the wolves and the environmental groups’ willingness to sue to prevent that leaves the government in a tough position.

"Generally the Fish and Wildlife Service is in the middle on these disputes," says Elizabeth Slown, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque. "And generally I think you’re in the right place when you’re in the middle. But with the wolf issue it can be a very lonely place."

And it may be about to get lonelier.

Earlier this month the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that three of the nine Mexican gray wolves that have died in the wild in 2008 were illegally shot.

"I am disturbed that there are suspicious circumstances around their deaths and I want to know what happened to each wolf," Benjamin N. Tuggle, regional director for the service’s Southwest Region, said in a press release. "All of our available law enforcement resources will be used to conduct a comprehensive investigation."

The Fish and Wildlife Service offered a reward of $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of an individual responsible for a wolf’s death. A group of 10 environmental groups banded together to add $40,000 reward money to the $10,000 already offered by the service.

But so far there have been no breaks in those cases, Slown said.

"Clearly there’s plenty of work to be done in the forensic investigations, but given that they’ve been shot, it’s probably somebody who believes that wolves are a threat to livestock," theorizes Rob Edward, carnivore recovery director for WildEarth Guardians.

The intense feelings on both sides of the debate, from environmentalists and ranchers, have been around since the inception of the wolf recovery program.

At the same time the fight has dragged on, focusing at times on different parts of the program. In July 2007, WildEarth Guardians filed suit against the Catron County Commission because in February of that year the commission passed an ordinance authorizing the killing of Mexican gray wolves.

These days, however, the battle has moved to Standard Operating Procedure 13, which gives Fish and Wildlife the power to remove problem wolves. To simplify: Ranchers want Fish and Wildlife to exercise that right more often. Environmental groups say the government is removing so many wolves that it’s making it impossible for the species to survive.

"So many species have been ignored by the Fish and Wildlife Service, and it’s put groups like our own in the position of having to force their hand," says Hailey, whose group is suing to force Fish and Wildlife to revise its standard operating procedures to leave more wolves in the wild.

The ongoing hostilities between ranchers and environmentalists don’t appear headed for a rapprochement anytime soon.

"This is the most endangered mammal in North America and the most endangered wolf in the world," Hailey says. Then referring to federal agencies, she says, "They say, ‘Oh, we can’t do the job we’re supposed to do because we’re too busy defending against lawsuits,’ but if they were doing what they were supposed to be doing, then we wouldn’t have to sue them." "

Aymar, the Catron County commissioner, doesn’t see it that way

"The hardest part of the whole issue is that most of the people who have a very strong position on this don’t have wolves in their back yard," Aymar says. "It’s easy to sit up there in Santa Fe and say wolves are a great idea. How many poodles would a wolf have to kill in Santa Fe before somebody did something about it?"

Asked if he could see a pathway to agreement about wolf reintroduction among ranchers, environmental groups and the government, he says no. "The whole issue is too polarized."

 

This story has been corrected to reflect the proper spelling style of WildEarth Guardians.