Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate
Press Releases
Wolves Return to Deep Creek
“This project was a great opportunity to partner with the Forest Service and other conservation groups to improve resource and watershed conditions,” said the Greater Gila Guardian Madeleine Carey. “And hearing the Dark Canyon pack closed the circle on the allotment buyout. The cows are gone, the wolves are back, and we are making progress towards a wilder Gila.”
Volunteers and staff from WildEarth Guardians, Defenders of Wildlife, the El Paso Zoo, and New Mexico State University made repairs to a boundary fence that separates an actively grazed allotment from the closed Deep Creek allotment and removed hundreds of yards of old barbed wire. Wildfires, elk, cattle, and even people cause damage to fences, sometimes completely tearing them down. Maintaining a solid fence line is labor-intensive, but critical for managing cattle and allowing sensitive resources to recover.
“Projects like this are critical to creating coexistence between cattle and wolves” said Michael Dax, New Mexico Outreach Representative for Defenders of Wildlife.“Multi-stakeholder collaboration is essential to the survival of the Mexican wolf.”
TheGreater Gila Bioregion is an extraordinarily wild area, yet large portions of it remain unprotected. A growing number of stakeholders are making the Gila a conservation priority and collaborating to protect and restore its exceptional resources.