The Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program partners have worked diligently to produce a draft Five-Year Review that is now available for public comment. The reintroduction of Mexican Gray wolves into their historic range in Arizona and New Mexico began in 1998 with their current numbers reaching more than 50 animals in the wild.
The agencies involved in the reintroduction want to receive public feedback on how the recovery effort is going so far and view public input as crucial to project operations insuring that wolf recovery and human dimensions are balanced. The five-year review presents an opportunity for the public to comment on the project and how it's being managed. These are the documents now available for review: An outline of the review process, a Technical Component giving background on the project activities, the Administrative Component describing the project management and the Socioeconomic Component describing the impacts of the project can be found at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Web site: http://mexicanwolf.fws.gov or at the Arizona Game and Fish Department's Web site: http://www.gf.state.az.us/
Comments on the Mexican Gray Wolf Reintroduction Project Five-Year review will be taken through March 15, 2005. Only written comments sent through the U.S. Postal Service and postmarked by March 15, 2005 will be accepted. Submit comments to:
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
New Mexico Ecological Services Office
2105 Osuna NE
Albuquerque, New Mexico 8711
In addition, four open houses are planned for late January in order to give the public an opportunity to ask questions about the Five-Year Review. These open houses will
provide for the exchange of accurate information with project specialists from all of the cooperating agencies. The meetings will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. in the following towns:
January. 26 - Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
January. 27 - Glenwood, New Mexico
January. 28 - Alpine, Arizona
January. 29 - Phoenix, Arizona
The specific locations of the meetings are still being determined and will be announced in the near future.
Please note: The Mexican wolf reintroduction project is a matter of law, as has been discussed on numerous occasions at a variety of venues. The courts have clearly and repeatedly affirmed the legality of the reintroduction project and the mandate to pursue it under the Endangered Species Act as a component of wolf recovery. Hence, the focus of the five-year review is on objectively identifying specifics about what has worked well and what has not worked well thus far in the reintroduction project, and what should be done in terms of law, policy, and/or procedure to improve the project to better address the relevant recovery and social issues. Comments regarding position statements only (e.g., like/dislike; agree/disagree with the Mexican wolf reintroduction project) will not be considered relevant to this review.
The agencies cooperating in the Mexican wolf reintroduction are the Arizona Game and Fish Department, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Forest Service, USDA- APHIS Wildlife Services, and White Mountain Apache Tribe.
