by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and DAILY SUN STAFF
“We can’t, over time, maintain genetic viability in the little area that they have,” said Southwest
Regional Director Benjamin Tuggle.
The agency has proposed expanding the range of the wolves and as a result has reignited passions about whether and where humans should coexist with the predators.
Ranchers and rural families were outraged as the plan was discussed at a public meeting on Tuesday in Pinetop. A similar meeting took place last month in Albuquerque, N.M., where environmentalists spoke in favor of the proposal.
The federal agency hadn’t planned to have any meetings in Arizona but was pressured by politicians to allow Arizonans the chance to speak as well.
Under the current proposed plan, wolves would be allowed to live in forested habitat as far north as Interstate 40. The USFWS is considering removing the gray wolf from the endangered species list nationwide and designating the Mexican gray wolf as a protected subspecies. But it would likely
keep its experimental population designation. That means that if wolves left their designated borders, they would be captured and removed.
However, biologists have identified the Grand Canyon region as some of the last, best territory for wolves. Although few people live in the area, the reintroduction has been blocked in part by hunters who want to protect big game on the North Kaibab.
“It’s up to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to go forward and do their jobs based on the best available science and not the politics of state and federal agencies,” said Emily Nelson of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. “We might see the opportunity slip by us if we’re not outspoken about wanting to see wolves in the Grand Canyon.”
The State of Utah has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a group called Big Game Forever to
lobby against the lobo and its potential reintroduction to the North Rim. The group was audited at the request of Democratic state legislators after receiving payments of $300,000 the past two years for unspecified lobbying purposes, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The lobbying group said it was fighting the Mexican gray wolf’s reintroduction, which many in southern Utah fear will quickly migrate into the remote region.
a test of time
The Mexican wolf was reintroduced in 1998. Biologists say there are at least 75 wolves in the wild in the two states. Federal officials believe it’s necessary to make more room for packs — 14 at last count — to squeeze the most from a limited gene pool.
Nelson said that whatever happens with the official reintroduction plan, she’s optimistic about the chances of wolves in northern Arizona.
“I’m always very optimistic that the wolves will come here on their own because the wolves will follow the best habitat and seek out the best places to find mates,” Nelson said. “I think the people of northern Arizona are much more supportive of wolf recovery. Every public poll in Arizona has shown the majority of people support wolf recovery in the Grand Canyon region.”
But many local elected officials from rural areas of the state spoke out against expanded wolf reintroduction at the meeting in Pinetop on Tuesday.
“The sad truth is that the wolves are already here,” Globe Mayor Terry Wheeler said during Tuesday’s meeting.
But if they’re released in Gila County as proposed, he said, wolves will soon be in Scottsdale “munching down on pink Pomeranians.”
Others in the crowd of about 300 people responded with pronouncements of hysteria or “lobophobia” after several people angrily accused the government of endangering children. Biologists said wolves are wild animals requiring caution but they have not attacked anyone since reintroduction began.
Members of the White Mountain Apache and Havasupai tribes spoke for protection. A group of Havasupai elders said they wanted to see wolves inside the Grand Canyon.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to more than double the area in which captive wolves could be released to 12,500 square miles. The release zone currently is restricted to the southern Apache National Forest, but it would grow north and west to the Payson area, including the full Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest and three ranger districts in the Tonto National Forest. It would also expand east in New Mexico, across Gila National Forest and into Cibola National Forest.
Eric Betz can be reached at 556-2250 or ebetz@azdailysun.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Exposing the Big Game 
All wolves need protection, humans are the predators! The Mexican Grays and the Red Wolves are most critically in need of protection and any small Grays in the Northeast, if USFWS feels like looking for them before they all have coyote blood mixed in. They have turned up in Maine, near large rivers, following moose or deer in the Great North Woods. There were many mixed with malamutes but those are nearly as lost as the freighting history that produced them. I think they are worth preserving, not just because they made a sturdy, strong wheel-dog on a sled team but because once they are gone, it is forever. There may only be a couple dozen of them left in Maine? Maybe less? They are all living history! But saving them as wild populations is risky at best! It is beyond logic why they’re listed as experimental wolves and dumped into the most uneducated, ‘lobophobic’ areas USFWS can find. I mean, geez, according to experts, Northwestern Maine is prime wolf habitat! Why didn’t we get some wolves? And where much less wolf education is necessary because very few people live there and there’s thousands of moose and deer! I have to wonder if USFWS considers what is best for the wolves or best for the special interest groups? They need to do their jobs and follow the best intent of the ESA, but with the latest best scientific data. Wishes of Native communities should also be honored. Because wolves are spritual creatures.
There is no Stockmen’s Association, no Cattlemen’s Association, no Livestock Grower’s Association, or any other livestock industry “association” that will tolerate wolves–anywhere. For those who are not familiar with the violent, murderous history of the livestock industry since the late 1800’s, please refer to Lynn Jacobs’ well -researched book “The Waste of the West.” While this book was printed years ago, it is timeless, and the public needs to understand what the livestock establishment is about. It has no interest in saving or reintroducing any so-called “predators” and also wages war against many other wild animals, including the prairie dog, a gentle, intelligent vegetarian, who keeps prairie soils healthy. There is room for wolves. But, there is no room for wolves as long as ranchers graze on the public lands, where wolves, coyotes, and a myriad of other native animals belong. It is a war out there, and the wildlife are losing.
Well put! Sorry I went off the rails on my first comment. But you are correct, the reality of the livestock growers, be they feed lot ‘trailer trash’ or live in some beautiful home in the mountains, all seem to be working off the same one brain cell. And it has a deep subconscience fear of wolves the remains irrational no matter what facts are given. They just flat out do not want to change. Add substance abuse to this combination and you have a fearful addict with an entitlement issue, which reads ‘unstable’ in big neon letters. That is why I seriously believe if USFWS really did care for the future of wolves, they would not list them as experimental. Also it is highly suspicious that they choose the areas with the most vile of subhuman garbage to release wolves, then sit back and watch wolf genocide!
North west Maine, along the Canadian border is perfect wolf habitat, mostly uninhabited by anyone but Penobscot Indians up around Alder Stream. And full ofmoose and deer. USFWS did not give us the chance to comment locally. This tells me they do not want to trouble themselves with science or wolves anymore.
Thanks, Melody! Great comments. I lived on the Maine coast for 7 yrs (1998 to 2005). Rednecks can be found everywhere, it seems. We dealt with the same prejudices against wildlife there, minus the public lands ranching industry. It never ends.
Rosemary, thanks, I’ve lived in NH, CO and Southwestern Maine as an adult. Rednecks are everywhere but the ones on the Front Range have a special kind of crazy going on that the photo of the guy’s with the flour sacks on their heads, trying to look like the KKK, but with the wrong flag and a dead wolf with a broken leg, shows, are actually pretty average for what I found in the outlying areas. Maine’s rednecks are generally not that aggressive. Once I was in the NH State Capitol Building with Abenaki Elder Mali Keating and we had on ribbon shirts that she made. We were walking down the hallway and a state rep came up to us and seriously stood there like a ‘cigar store Indian’ and raised his hand and said “How”! So this is proof that rednecks really are everywhere, including holding public office! And also that the racism and ignorance that plague the Wolves and have since Wolf eradication started in Massachusetts in 1637, is the same racism and ignorance that also burned alive an entire Pequot village of around 700 sleeping families, not surprisingly, the same year by generally the same bunch of haters! Nothing has changed their minds over hunderds of years, over five centuries in New Mexico’s case. There is no logical reason, they just don’t want to change.
“The sad truth is that the wolves are already here,”…says it all. Idiot.