02 May 2014
By Jo Anne Blount for the Beat
On the wolf, Grant County signed a memorandum of understanding
with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, regarding their proposal to put
more wolves into Arizona and New Mexico. "Grant County Commissioners
have a duty to look out for the health, safety and welfare of the
residents and believe having a 'place at the table will help them do so,
even though ranchers have expressed concern over this action,"
Southwest County Commissioners Alliance Chairman GRant County
Commissioner Gabriel Ramos said.
Catron County has refused to sign, contending that it is a bogus
agreement. Commissioner Bucky Allred wants the federal government to
respect the impacts caused by wolves, pay for them and financially make
up for the losses incurred. In the short term a reimbursement fund would
mitigate some depredation effects. It has been estimated that since
January, about $150,000 has been lost by the cattle industry due to
wolves. If, as one alternative proposes, 150 wolves are put in each
state (AZ and NM), leading to the agency hoped for population of
thousands, and if the coyote-like Mexican Gray Wolves breed with larger
gray wolves to produce a 250-pound wolf, the impacts will be greater and
realized throughout the targeted counties, with Catron most impacted
having about 90% of them. Catron County Commissioner Glyn Griffin said
that it is criminal to put habituated wolves, not wild wolves, into
areas where they are threats. The Mule Creek vicinity will most likely
suffer the first effects in Grant County.
Catron County was instrumental in the withdrawal of the New Mexico
Game and Fish Department from the wolf program because of dishonesty by
employees, and maintains that position. "Right now there are more than
80 wolves with not enough staff and infrastructure to manage them,"
Allred said. "If NMDGF comes back in they will embrace the Federal
dollars to manage wolves, and help the program."
Allred reported that the Cattle Growers met at the Blue Front Café
Monday, April 28, for the purpose of taking input and determining how to
move forward on the FWS proposal. The consensus was to parallel the
actions decided upon at a similar input meeting held in Winston. The
determination was "no wolves." The course of action was to get as many
alternatives submitted as possible in the next two weeks.
He said he would also like a multi-county effort to have Governor
Susana Martinez retract the MOU signed by Gov. Bill Richardson which,
was a cooperative agreement on the reintroduction efforts.
The commissioners agreed that the Agency should analyze the economic
impacts of wolf reintroduction, put money towards true conservation and
preservation of peaceful species.
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