"Members of the Mexican Wolf Adaptive Management Oversight Committee, which includes members of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, Arizona Game and Fish Department, USDA-APHIS Wildlife Services, USDA-Forest Service, and White Mountain Apache Tribe are hosting public meetings in New Mexico and Arizona. The meetings are intended to provide an opportunity for the public to discuss the projects five-year review, history, current status and future goals with program biologists and subject matter experts.
"The meetings will be conducted in open-house formats beginning at 6 p.m. and ending by 9 p.m. each evening.
"Meeting dates and locations as follows:
"January 26th - The Civic Center, 400 West 4th Avenue, Truth or Consequences, NM
"January 27th - The Community Center, Mengel Lane off of Highway 180, Glenwood, NM
"January 28th - The Old Alpine School, Alpine, Arizona
"January 29th - The Phoenix Zoo, Phoenix, Arizona
"More meeting details and site directions can be found at:
"http://www.azgfd.com/w_c/wolf_adaptive.ahtml
The agencies involved in the reintroduction want to receive public feedback on how the reintroduction 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 its being managed. These are the documents now available for review: An outline of the five-year 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. They can be found at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Web site: http://mexicanwolf.fws.gov or at the Arizona Game and Fish Departments 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 87113
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.
2"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 544 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
"-http://southwest.fws.gov-
