Since 1998, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Arizona Game and Fish Department, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, USDA-APHIS Wildlife Services, and White Mountain Apache Tribe have been involved in reintroducing the Mexican wolf to areas of Arizona and New Mexico.
mso-pagination The cooperating agencies use an adaptive approach in the management of the project, operating as a core team called the Mexican Wolf Blue Range Reintroduction Project Adaptive Management Oversight Committee (AMOC). The group has drafted five new standard operating procedures (SOPs) for public review and comment that will guide wolf management activities and related decisions regarding the reintroduction project. The new AMOC SOPs address supplemental feeding, roadkill salvage, wolf control, helicopter capture, and aerial monitoring flights. The SOPs are accompanied by a proposed AMOC one-year moratorium on new releases of captive-bred Mexican wolves that have never been in the wild.
AMOC is inviting interested parties to review the draft SOPs and the proposed moratorium, and provide written comment to AMOC by May 31, 2005. You may view the documents at: http://www.azgfd.gov/artman/uploads/mw_amoc_sops_8-9-13-15-18_and_proposed_moratorium_20050426.pdf Individual copies of the SOPs and the proposed moratorium are also available by telephone request to 602-789-3500 or 505-346-2525.
mso-pagination Comment on these documents may be submitted via email to the Mexican wolf reintroduction project ( COLOR: blue; mexwolf@azgfd.gov ) or via postal mail to: Mexican Wolf Reintroduction Project, c/o Arizona Game and Fish Department, Attention: Terry B. Johnson, 2221 West Greenway Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85023. Comment must be received by May 31 to be considered.
2The 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. Visit the Service's website at http://www.fws.gov.
