U.S. seeks to overturn wolf injunction
Order blocks release without state’s OK
The federal government asked an appeals court in Denver on Wednesday to overturn a New Mexico order that bars the release of endangered wolves in the state without its permission.
The dispute before the 10th Circuit is over a Fish and Wildlife Service program to restore the Mexican gray wolf to parts of its original range in New Mexico and Arizona.
New Mexico has multiple complaints about the way the program is managed, and in 2015 it refused to issue a permit to Fish and Wildlife to release more of the predators in the state. New Mexico also announced it might sue the agency.
Fish and Wildlife decided to release more wolves anyway, citing an urgent need to expand the wild population to prevent inbreeding. New Mexico officials went to court, and a federal judge in New Mexico issued a preliminary injunction last year blocking further releases while the dispute is resolved.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Justice Department attorney Rachel Heron argued against the state’s rights position, saying the Interior Department — Fish and Wildlife’s parent agency — is required by law to protect the wolves.
A coalition of environmental groups, led by Defenders of Wildlife, intervened on Interior’s side, arguing the state’s interpretation would wrongly give the state veto power over measures to save a federally protected species.
New Mexico state attorney Matthias L. Sayer told the judges that Fish and Wildlife had made it difficult for the state to manage big game because of uncertainty about how many wolves — which prey on big game — would be released.
One of the judges, Scott Matheson Jr., questioned whether New Mexico could
show definitively that it would be harmed by the release of more wolves and how much harm it would suffer.
The three judges who heard the case did not say when they would decide. Appeals court judges generally take weeks or months to issue a ruling.
Reintroducing wolves is always contentious because they sometimes attack domestic livestock as well as wild game. Last year, the Interior Department’s internal watchdog said Fish and Wildlife had not fulfilled its obligation to remove Mexican gray wolves that preyed on pets and cattle.
The Mexican wolf program has had other problems, including multiple failed attempts to update the original 1982 recovery plan. Fish and Wildlife has agreed to produce a new plan this year to settle a lawsuit filed by conservation groups.
New Mexico officials also complain that federal officials tripled the target number of wolves in the wild — from about 100 to 300 — without sufficient justification.
Only about 100 Mexican gray wolves live in the wild.