Comment on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's new Mexican wolf management rule

Photo: Conservation Center

WildEarth Guardians’ efforts to defend Mexican wolves

Restoring Lobos

The Mexican gray wolf, or lobo, is the most endangered gray wolf in North America and one of the most endangered carnivores in the world. After lobos were nearly wiped out, reintroduction began in 1998 in remote areas of New Mexico and Arizona. Since then, recovery has been slow and turbulent.

In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that the only wild population of Mexican gray wolves in the U.S. was not essential to the recovery of Mexican gray wolves as a species. Guardians and our allies sued, and in 2018, a U.S. district judge told the Service to go back to the drawing board to write a new management rule for the lobo.

Now, we’re all at the drawing board—and we need your voice to help ensure that Mexican wolf management aims at true recovery.

To truly recover lobos, a new rule should be based on the best available science and prioritize enhancing the genetic diversity of the wild lobo population. It should allow for the release of more wolves into the wild; limit the removal of wild wolves except in cases of imminent threat to human health or safety; protect wolves from poaching; and reduce wolf-livestock conflict.

Protect Lobos

Our Mexican gray wolf tool kit has everything you need to raise your voice for lobos, including ready-to-go social media posts and tips for writing a letter to the editor.

Visit the wolf tool kit

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “decision to maintain the population’s nonessential status without consideration of the best available information was arbitrary and capricious.”

— Honorable Jennifer G. Zipps, United States District Judge

Lobos are Essential

Lobos are critical ecosystem influencers in the desert southwest.

They keep prey populations healthy and in balance, protect riparian and aquatic resources, and indicate the health of entire ecosystems.

Greatest Threat

Humans are the largest obstacle to truly recovering lobos.

Along with illegal trapping and hunting, vehicular mortalities, and official removals from the wild, politically motivated “recovery” plans have put the lobo in a precarious position.

Distinct, Yet Connected

The best available science shows that real recovery for lobos would include three distinct, but connected populations of at least 200 wolves (and 750 wolves in total).

Along with lobos‘ current range in the Greater Gila Bioregion, the Grand Canyon area and the Southern Rockies are identified as prime habitat.

Genetic Diversity

Mexican wolves in the wild are, on average, as related as brothers and sisters.

Though lobos are increasing in number, perhaps the greatest indicator of recovery efforts is the genetic health of the wild population. Unfortunately, a genetic bottleneck threatens lobos: those in the wild are, on average, as genetically related as brothers and sisters.

Mexican Gray Wolves

Ways we are working to protect and recover the species

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Protection & Recovery

Find out more about Mexican wolf reintroduction and our efforts to protect and restore the lobo.

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The Greater Gila Bioregion

Learn about our work in the Greater Gila Bioregion, home of the Mexican wolf.

A Better Approach to Wolf Recovery

Read the letter conservationists, leading scientists, and animal activists sent the U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about the new Mexican wolf management rule.

Take Action

Tell the Service that you want to see a lobo management rule that will actually recover Mexican wolves by signing our petition.

Submit Your Comments to Help Mexican Gray Wolves

Your voice is needed to protect Lobos!

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking comments on their Mexican wolf planning rule until June 15, 2020 and you can submit your comments right here. We’ve provided talking points below to help guide you in writing your comment letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Please use these talking points as a guideline for drafting your individual comments, but what’s most important is that your voice and your reason for wanting lobo recovery come through. So, please speak in your own words, but make sure to emphasis the fact that a new Mexican wolf management rule must achieve the following:

Release more wolves into the wild

The maximum feasible number of well-bonded Mexican wolf pairs with pups are released into the wild.

Limit the removal of wild wolves

There is no limit to the number of lobos in the wild.
Wolves are not be removed from the wild because of predation on wildlife.
Wolves are never to be killed except in cases of imminent threat to human health or safety.
A very high bar is required for the removal of wolves for preying on livestock.
Wolves are not to be removed from the wild for breaching any geographic boundary.

Protect lobos from poaching

Livestock grazing permittees found guilty of illegally killing or injuring a lobo forfeit their permit.
Only scientists doing research and professionals involved in official wolf management have access to tracking devices or real-time GPS information.
Every wild wolf that is unlawfully killed is replaced by the release of a captive-born wolf within a year.

Reduce wolf-livestock conflict

The wild U.S. population of Mexican wolves is designated as essential, meaning that federal agencies must evaluate what impacts their actions have on wolf recovery.
Managing agencies proactively engage and educate stakeholders regarding wolf behavior, ecology, and coexistence tactics.
Public land grazing permittees with knowledge that wolves are on nearby public land must ensure the presence of a person equipped to chase and harass wolves to deter livestock depredation.
Public land grazing permittees must remove or render inedible carcasses that were not killed by wolves.
All instances of wolves feeding on livestock, along with corresponding necropsies, are documented.

Aligning a new 10(j) rule with the deeply flawed 2017 recovery plan goes against the court ordered remand of this rule.

Click here to submit your comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before the June 15, 2020 deadline!

How You Can Help

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Danielle Plourde

Data Management Administrator

Danielle joined Guardians in the summer of 2021. As part of the Guardians Resource Team, her role is largely focused on background support to keep the small and mighty engine that is WildEarth Guardians running smoothly. Danielle is no stranger to supportive roles, when she is not at Guardians she is supporting families during the wonderful, potent and awesome transition that is pregnancy, birth and postpartum. She has supported many families in New Mexico as a Doula. She also runs a small herbal company that focuses primarily on this transition. Danielle has a B.A. in philosophy and religious studies and sees her role as a birthworker and a Guardian deeply intertwined and interdependent in the realms of public health and environmentalism.

Nicholas Bascom

Wildlife Program Intern

Nick is a 3rd year law student at UCLA serving as a summer intern with WildEarth Guardians in the Wildlife Program. For Guardians, he concentrates mostly on protecting imperiled species via the Endangered Species Act. At UCLA, his focus is on environmental law and tribal legal development. Before law school, he taught for many years and wrote for Science News and Research Penn State. His first novel, Mordor, California, will be published in the fall. He lives with his wife Camrynn, his son Kyber, and his dogs K.C. and London.

Javier Gallegos

Photography Intern

Javier is the Summer 2021 photography intern for WildEarth Guardians. His work focuses on photographing the Rio Grande and its impact on ecology and human life. He became concerned with the drying of the river from his experience of growing up in El Paso, Texas, without water in the Rio Grande. Only in pictures of other parts of the country did he know what a river was supposed to be like. He is currently a senior at New Mexico State University with plans to graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism & Professional Communication and a minor in History in the spring of 2022. Javier enjoys watching stand up comedy and video games in his free time.

Siera Schroeder

Intern

Siera is a rising 3L at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law. Growing up in upstate New York she fell in love with the outdoors but it wasn’t until she moved to Denver, Colorado that she realized how deep her passion and love for the outdoors – especially trees and water – actually ran. She now takes every opportunity she can to row or raft down a river, or go and see some trees! One may even say she’s become a real tree hugger. Siera hopes to translate her love and passion for the outdoors and all its wonders into a successful legal career advocating for the protection of the natural environment so it might be preserved for future generations to love and enjoy.

Rachel Pemberton

Intern

Rachel is a rising 3L at Lewis & Clark Law School focusing on environmental and natural resources law. Combining her interests in the natural and social sciences, she received her Bachelor's degree in environmental studies from the University of Washington in 2018. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest exploring parks and forests has made her passionate about protecting public lands, wildlife, and clean air and water for present and future generations.

Reza Sadeghzadeh

Wild Rivers Program Intern

Reza is a rising 3-year law student at University of Oregon School of Law. He received his B.A. from Humboldt State University, where he quickly fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. As an intern for the Wild Rivers Program, Reza’s work is focused on protecting the western yellow-billed cuckoo and the Upper Willamette Chinook salmon and Winter Steelhead. In his free time, Reza is usually doing some outdoor activity like backpacking, cycling, or diving.

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[email protected]

Simon Miller

Intern

Simon Miller is a 2021 summer intern for WildEarth Guardians. He is a rising Junior at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Simon is a Political Science major that has a passion for examining, improving, and defending the laws and regulations that make our world a better place for people and wildlife. Simon grew up and still lives in Oak Park, the first suburb west of the Chicago city limits.

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[email protected] 303-501-5815

Andrew Rothman

Wild Places Program Director

A native of Wisconsin, Andrew’s interest in wildlife started in his youth, thanks to his many trips to their family cabin in the Northwoods. Growing up in the 80’s, Andrew’s interests in native wildlife expanded to that of the rainforests of Latin America that he learned were rapidly being destroyed. A lifelong aspiration to help protect wildlife and their habitat ensued. Andrew’s professional career has led him toward fulfilling those aspirations. Andrew helped thousands of people increase their connection to nature as the Assistant Naturalist at the renowned Horicon Marsh with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Andrew founded his own non-profit organization, Rainforest Biodiversity Group, to help protect and restore habitat for the endangered Great Green Macaw in Costa Rica; helping private landowners establish private reserves and creating Latin America’s first Birding Trail along the way. Andrew spent over a decade working with American Bird Conservancy managing a portfolio of projects in nearly a dozen countries in Latin America leading to the protection and restoration of thousands of acres of grassland, forest and wetland habitat for migratory and highly endangered endemic birds. Here he also helped establish ABC’s Great Lakes Program, co-authored the Golden-winged Warbler Non-breeding Grounds Conservation Plan, the first plan of its type for a songbird, and helped establish ABC’s Impact Investing Program, which looks to find ways to demonstrate how non-philanthropic capital can be invested for conservation outputs. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, with degrees in Biology and Wildlife Management, Andrew continues to bring innovative solutions to complex conservation problems. Andrew enjoys international travel having visited 28 countries. He also enjoys rock climbing, skiing, yoga, hiking and fine dining. Andrew is the descendant of two WWII concentration camp escapees.

Contact

[email protected] 928-242-3292

Jack Meyer

Greater Gila Arizona Advocate

A local to Arizona's White Mountains, Jack Meyer brings to the Greater Gila campaign a reverence for the wildlife and wild places that shaped him. Jack has worked on social and environmental justice issues throughout his adult life and during his time as an Environmental Studies student at Northern Arizona University. In 2014 he began working with 350.org's fossil fuel divestment movement, and has founded chapters for Our Climate and the Sunrise Movement in Arizona to advocate for science based policy solutions to address climate change. After a year in Tennessee working with Appalachian Voices on their energy democracy campaign Jack is back in the West as WildEarth Guardians Greater Gila Advocate for Arizona. Feel free to send him an email to chat about the work he is doing to protect public lands across the Greater Gila Bioregion.

Zoe Camporaso

Wildlife Program Intern

Zoe is an intern in the Wildlife Program at WildEarth Guardians. She is majoring in Environmental Science at Lewis & Clark College, with a minor in History. She is passionate about soil science and the rights of land. Zoe enjoys vegetable gardening and one of her life goals is to swim in as many bodies of water as possible.

WildEarth Guardians’ efforts to defend Mexican wolves

Restoring Lobos

Protect Lobos

Lobos are Essential

Lobos are critical ecosystem influencers in the desert southwest.

Greatest Threat

Humans are the largest obstacle to truly recovering lobos.

Distinct, Yet Connected

The best available science shows that real recovery for lobos would include three distinct, but connected populations of at least 200 wolves (and 750 wolves in total).

Genetic Diversity

Mexican wolves in the wild are, on average, as related as brothers and sisters.

Mexican Gray Wolves

Ways we are working to protect and recover the species

Submit Your Comments to Help Mexican Gray Wolves

Your voice is needed to protect Lobos!

How You Can Help

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Danielle Plourde

Data Management Administrator

Nicholas Bascom

Wildlife Program Intern

Javier Gallegos

Photography Intern

Siera Schroeder

Intern

Rachel Pemberton

Intern

Reza Sadeghzadeh

Wild Rivers Program Intern

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Simon Miller

Intern

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Andrew Rothman

Wild Places Program Director

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Jack Meyer

Greater Gila Arizona Advocate

Zoe Camporaso

Wildlife Program Intern