Restoring the Mexican Wolf

1870s

First ranches established in Arizona and New Mexico.

1893

Arizona-New Mexico territorial legislature establishes bounties on “predatory wolves”

1914

Predatory Animal and Rodent Control (PARC) established by Congress – predecessor to Animal Damage Control (ADC) which is now called Wildlife Services. Government-endorsed wolf extermination program begins.

1952

Compound 1080 (strychnine) introduced in the southwest and Mexico for predator control.

1970

Last confirmed Mexican wolf killed in the United States near Alpine, Texas.

1976

Mexican wolf listed as endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act.

1977-80

Last five known wild Mexican wolves captured in Mexico and entered into a captive breeding program at US zoos.

1982

FWS and Mexico jointly approve a Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan calling for expanded breeding efforts and the establishment of a wild population of at least 100 wolves.

1986-88

Defenders begins advocacy campaign to generate public support for reintroduction, working with citizen groups in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

1987

New Mexico Department of Game and Fish proposes White Sands Missile Range for reintroduction but U.S. Army refuses to cooperate with experimental reintroduction plan. United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) regional director terminates reintroduction program based on Army's position.

1990

Citizen groups (Wolf Action Group and Mexican Wolf Coalition) sue the Department of Interior for failure to proceed with wolf reintroduction. Preserve Arizona's Wolves hosts a wolf symposium to address recovery issues. Arizona Game and Fish Department releases opinion poll demonstrating strong support for wolf reintroduction in Arizona: 61% favor, 18% oppose.

FWS hires Mexican wolf recovery coordinator to develop specific reintroduction strategies.

1991

Defenders commits to compensating ranchers market value for livestock lost to wolves. Defenders convinces Arizona cattle growers and wool producers to cooperate with recovery.

1992-96

Defenders sponsors a series of annual Mexican wolf lobby visits, bringing Southwest activists to Washington, D.C. to meet with key Congress members and FWS agency officials to secure funding for Mexican wolf recovery program.

Defenders hosts three annual wolf summits in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Regional wolf activists collectively develop advocacy skills and strategies to further wolf recovery. FWS begins Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process with public meetings held throughout the southwest.

1993-96

Defenders launches Mexican wolf booth advocacy campaigns in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Traveling exhibits educate the public and motivate them to act on behalf of wolf recovery.

1993

U.S. Federal District Court in New Mexico directs FWS to proceed with wolf recovery – July, 1996 is established as the date for release of wolves.

1995

Draft EIS released by FWS 14 months after date required by courts. It summarizes and compares the potential for releases into Arizona and/or New Mexico.

Defenders organizes public participation at 17 public meetings and through hearings on the draft EIS. Supporters heavily outnumber opponents at all three hearings and provide substantive comments on the proposals.

Defenders outlines plans with local ranchers for "Wolf Country" beef certification, a market-based incentive that recognizes ranchers who eliminate the use of lethal predator control and who agree to allow wolf recolonization on their private land.

Arizona Game and Fish Commission votes to support releases in New Mexico; New Mexico Game and Fish Commission opposes reintroduction in both states, claiming no local support exists.

League of Women Voters opinion poll demonstrates strong support in New Mexico. Statewide 62% favor, 22% oppose. Locally, in the four affected rural counties, 50% favor, 30% oppose.

1996

FWS stalls on release of final EIS, violating stipulated settlement agreement by 21 months and losing the possibility of spring 1997 wolf releases.

Defenders (as lead plaintiff) and 26 regional organizations file 60-day notice of intent to sue FWS for failure to release final EIS and reintroduce wolves.

Captive-breeding facilities reach capacity; wolves are moved to acclimation facility at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico.

FWS Regional Director announces intent to release Final EIS on Dec. 20, 1996.

Defenders formally expands the Wolf Compensation Trust, a fund to compensate ranchers for verified livestock losses to wolves, to cover potential losses in the southwestern United States.

1997

In March, the secretary of agriculture, deputy secretary of the army, and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt signed the record of decision, allowing reintroduction to proceed.

Defenders sponsors a Mexican wolf lobby visit, which brings three Southwest activists to Washington to meet with key members of Congress to ensure adequate funding for the reintroduction.

Defenders sponsors two Mexican wildlife biologists to attend a wolf field techniques and training workshop in Chico Hot Springs, Montana in preparation for eventual release of wolves in Mexico.

Defenders-sponsored wolf summit in spring brings Mexican non-governmental organizations (NGO's) and governmental officials to Texas to discuss strategies for reintroducing the Mexican wolf to Mexico.

Defenders organizes volunteers to construct acclimation pens on media executive Ted Turner's Ladder Ranch in New Mexico.

1998

Final rule issued for release of Mexican wolves on January 14, 1998.

On January 26, 1998, 11 wolves are brought to pens in the Blue Range Recovery Area in preparation for their release into the wild in April. Defenders provides "Wolf Guardians," wildlife technicians that assist field team with wolf security, pen maintenance, feeding and monitoring during acclimation.

Campbell Blue, Hawk's Nest and Pipestem packs (11 wolves total) released into wild in April.

1998

First released Mexican wolf shot by a man first claiming to protect his dog then claiming self-defense. FWS drops case.

Field biologists document first wild-born Mexican wolf pup in over 50 years. Mother fatally shot. Pup disappears. Federal law enforcement agents assigned full time. Two Mexican wolves released in November.

Three more Mexican wolves illegally shot. Reward for information leading to arrest and conviction reaches $50,000.

First Wolf Compensation Trust payments in the Southwest for depredation of herding dog and injury to miniature horse.

New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau and a coalition of livestock groups file suit to stop Mexican wolf reintroduction, claiming that the wolves being released are hybrids and that a naturally occurring population of Mexican wolves still exists in the area. Defenders leads coalition to counter lawsuit.

Twenty-two wolves released, including 10 adults/subadults and 12 pups born in acclimation pens.

Defenders begins cooperative project with White Mountain Apache to assist with training and equipment in preparation for wolf recolonization on tribal lands.

Defenders sponsors five-state reintroduction feasibility studies in northern Mexico.

One pack of six wolves recaptured (Pipestem Pack) and six others from the seven-member Gavilan pack are recaptured due to livestock depredation. Sixteen wolves held for possible translocation into the roadless and largely livestock-free Gila Wilderness in western New Mexico.

To-date there are seven livestock depredation incidents in the first two years of wolf reintroduction (3 deaths occurred in authorized grazing areas, 3 animals were grazing illegally and one attack was non-fatal). This represents .01 percent of the total livestock present in the area

Defenders hires ranchhand to assist area rancher in minimizing conflict with wolves present during calving season.
Judge rules against New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau's lawsuit seeking to halt wolf reintroduction.

2000

USFWS proposes to reclassify gray wolves throughout lower 48, reducing protections to threatened across vast swaths that not yet have wolves. More than 20,000 public comments received, 95% opposed to the reclassification.

USFWS releases an Environmental Assessment proposing translocations (capture and re-release) of Mexican wolves into the roadless and largely livestock-free Gila Wilderness.

2003

The Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties for Stable Economic Growth, New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, and others bring another suit aimed at stopping the reintroduction, this time arguing that there were wolf-dog hybrids in the area that threatened the survival of the released wolves. This action is dismissed by the court.

USFWS cedes control of the reintroduction project to the Mexican Wolf Blue Range Adaptive Management Oversight Committee (AMOC), a coalition of six agencies (Arizona Game and Fish Department, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, USFWS, US Forest Service, White Mountain Apache Tribe, and USDA Wildlife Services).

USFWS publishes final reclassification rule for wolves in the lower 48. Defenders and 18 other organizations file suit against the reclassification.

2004

Defenders and regional conservation groups join together to form the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project to expand wolf recovery into the Grand Canyon Ecoregion, which is supported by wolf feasibility studies.

2005

Federal District Ct agrees with Defenders and other groups and overturns the Reclassification Rule – wolves now back to protected as endangered throughout most of US.

Defenders co-sponsors reintroduction planning workshop at Parque El Manzano, Nuevo Leon which identifies four priority reintroduction areas in Mexico.

2006

Defenders releases “Places for Wolves”, a scientific report presenting a vision for recovery of ecologically-effective populations of wolves throughout the U.S. and Mexico.

NM Congressman Steven Pearce hosts closed-door meeting with ranchers and high-level Fish and Wildlife Service officials which results in a proposed moratorium on future releases of Mexican wolves. The moratorium was never imposed due to too few breeding pairs in the wild.

Defenders and the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project initiate summer-long wolf education and advocacy campaign at Grand Canyon National Park’s North Rim and South Rim visitor centers.

The state-led Mexican Wolf Blue Range Adaptive Management Oversight Committee finalizes the 5-year Review of Mexican Wolf reintroduction program which makes recommendations for program modifications. One substantial modification calls for expanding the recovery area, which will require a federal NEPA process, including numerous public hearings and a new Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement.

2007

New Mexico’s Catron County passes an anti-wolf ordinance which is likely in violation of federal wildife protection laws.

The Community of San Joaquin de Soto and Mexico’s Commission for Natural Protected Areas declare the Sierra Gran Plegada of NE Mexico as “Zone of Ecological Restoration for Mexican Wolf Recovery”.

Defenders co-hosts the 18th annual North American Wolf Conference in Flagstaff, Arizona to help place greater focus on wolf recovery in the southwestern U.S..

USFWS begins process to re-write the final rule which governs the Mexican Wolf reintroduction program. Defenders and other groups call for substantial changes to recover the wolf.

2008

Defenders hires a Field Associate to oversee Compensation and Proactive projects to minimize conflicts between wolves and livestock in Arizona and New Mexico.

Defenders with coplantiffs the Center for Biological Diversity; Western Watersheds Project; New Mexico Audubon Council; New Mexico Wilderness Alliance; University of New Mexico Wilderness Alliance; The Wildlands Project; Sierra Club; Southwest Environmental Center; and Grand Canyon Wildlands Council, filed suit against the US Fish and Wildlife Service challenging the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2003 decision to cede responsibility of Mexican Wolf recovery to an Adaptive Management Oversight Committee, and challenges Standard Operating Procedure 13, which requires the removal of wolves known or suspected to have killed livestock on three separate occasions during a one-year span regardless of their genetic or demographic importance to recovery of the species. SOP 13.0 is the leading cause of wolf removals.