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A settlement has been reached in federal court that will require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency charged with protecting the Mexican wolf, to prepare a recovery plan — decades after it was supposed to do so.

The Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, Missouri, just outside St. Louis, has played a key role in helping save this wolf from extinction and reintroducing it back to the wild. The settlement results from a lawsuit filed in 2014 by Earthjustice on behalf of a coalition of wolf-conservation interests, including the Endangered Wolf Center.

Parties represented in the lawsuit jointly issued this news release:

News Release: For immediate use

Court settlement provides hope for Mexican wolves

Forty years after Endangered Species Act protection, government is required to prepare a recovery plan

Tucson, Ariz. — A coalition of wolf conservation groups, environmental organizations and a retired federal wolf biologist have announced a court settlement requiring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) to prepare a long-delayed recovery plan for Mexican gray wolves by November 2017.

With only 97 individuals existing in the wild at the end of 2015, and fewer than 25 in Mexico, the Mexican gray wolf is one of the most endangered mammals in North America and faces a serious risk of extinction. Thanks to the courts, the Service is finally required to meet its legal obligation of completing a legally sufficient recovery plan, with the ultimate goal of a healthy, sustainable population of Mexican gray wolves in the wild.

“The Mexican wolf is the sentry of the southwest,” said Virginia Busch, Executive Director of the Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, Missouri, one of the parties in the lawsuit. “This critically endangered wolf is vital to keeping the ecosystem healthy, which is why it needs a recovery plan based on sound science to save it from extinction.”

The Endangered Wolf Center has played a key role in Mexican wolf recovery efforts ever since it was founded in 1971.

Earthjustice filed a lawsuit in November 2014 to challenge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s multi-decade delay in completing a recovery plan for the Mexican wolf. Earthjustice represents the Endangered Wolf Center; Defenders of Wildlife; the Center for Biological Diversity; retired Fish and Wildlife Service Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator David R. Parsons; and the Wolf Conservation Center in the case. The settlement agreement follows a September 2015 ruling by a federal judge in Tucson that rejected the government’s effort to dismiss the case.

“The settlement provides hope that the lobo can be a living, breathing part of the southwestern landscape instead of just a long-lost frontier legend,” said Tim Preso, Earthjustice attorney. “But to realize that hope, federal officials must take up the challenge of developing a legitimate, science-based recovery plan for the Mexican wolf rather than yielding to political pressure.”

“Wolves love to follow paths,” said former Mexican wolf recovery leader David Parsons. “Now, finally, the path to recovery for the critically endangered lobos of the southwest will be blazed.”

“After four decades of delay, a scientific roadmap for recovery of the Mexican gray wolf will finally be reality,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “The recovery plan should trigger new releases of captive-bred wolves into the wild and establish new Mexican wolf populations in the Grand Canyon and southern Rocky Mountain ecosystems.”

The Service developed a document it labeled a “recovery plan” for the Mexican wolf in 1982 — but the Service itself admits that this document was incomplete, intended for only short-term application, and “did not contain objective and measurable recovery criteria for delisting as required by [the Endangered Species Act].” Most importantly, the 34-year-old document did not provide the necessary science-based guidance to move the Mexican gray wolf toward recovery. Without a recovery plan in place, the Service’s Mexican gray wolf conservation efforts have been hobbled by insufficient releases of captive wolves into the wild population, excessive removals of wolves from the wild, and arbitrary geographic restrictions on wolf occupancy of promising recovery habitat. The Service in 2010 admitted that the wild Mexican gray wolf population “is not thriving” and remains “at risk of failure,” and further admitted that “failure to develop an up-to-date recovery plan results in inadequate guidance for the reintroduction and recovery effort.”

“We are racing extinction on the Mexican gray wolf,” said Eva Sargent, senior Southwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife. “The best available science, not political pressure, should lead the recovery planning for the Mexican gray wolf. We need more wolves and less politics.”

The plaintiffs joining the April 25 settlement agreement include two environmental education organizations that operate captive-breeding facilities that have supported recovery efforts by providing Mexican gray wolves for release into the wild. Despite their efforts, Mexican gray wolf survival continues to be threatened by the lack of a recovery plan to ensure that wolf releases are sufficient to establish a viable population.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail,” said Maggie Howell, executive director of the Wolf Conservation Center in New York. “And for these iconic and imperiled wolves, failure means extinction. This settlement represents a necessary and long overdue step toward recovering America’s most endangered gray wolf and preventing an irrevocable loss from happening on our watch.”

“Education is a key component to the recovery of a species, especially for an animal that has been historically misunderstood and misrepresented. Equally important is an active, up-to-date recovery plan for the species in the wild,” said Busch of the Endangered Wolf Center just outside St. Louis.

“The genetic variability that organizations like the Endangered Wolf Center hold with the Mexican wolf population is hugely valuable for releases and cross-fostering opportunities in the wild, Busch said. “We are pleased to hear that the Service will be taking an active role in developing a recovery plan in a timely manner.”


Resources:

Background on Mexican gray wolves and photos for media use: Earthjustice materials
Read the settlement document: Read the settlement
Versión en línea: Read the settlement in Spanish

Background: The Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi)—the “lobo” of southwestern lore—is the most genetically distinct lineage of wolves in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most endangered mammals in North America. By the mid-1980s, hunting, trapping, and poisoning caused the extinction of lobos in the wild, with only a handful remaining in captivity. In 1998 the wolves were reintroduced into the wild as part of a federal reintroduction program under the Endangered Species Act. Today in the U.S., there is a single wild population in the Blue Range area of Arizona and New Mexico comprising only 97 individuals, all descendants of just seven wild founders of a captive breeding program. These wolves are threatened by illegal killings, legal removals due to conflicts with livestock, and a lack of genetic diversity. Within the past year alone, escalating mortalities and illegal killing, along with reduced pup survival, reduced the wild population from 110 to 97 individuals.

The Service has never written or implemented a legally sufficient Mexican gray wolf recovery plan. Its most recent recovery team has done extensive, rigorous work to determine what needs to be done to save the Mexican gray wolf. Recovery team scientists agreed that, in order to survive, lobos require the establishment of at least three linked populations. Habitat capable of supporting the two additional populations exists in the Grand Canyon ecoregion and in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. The recovery team drafted a plan in 2012 that called for establishing three interconnected Mexican gray wolf populations totaling at least 750 animals in these areas, but the plan has never been finalized.
The settlement requires the Service to complete a valid recovery plan by November 2017 and requires peer review of the recovery plan to ensure its scientific integrity. The settlement has been presented to the federal judge overseeing the case, who must approve it before the settlement becomes binding on the parties.

Contacts:

Rebecca Bowe, Earthjustice, 415-217-2093, [email protected]

Steve Parker, Endangered Wolf Center, 636-938-5900, [email protected]

Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity, (575) 313-7017, [email protected]

Maggie Howell, Wolf Conservation Center, 914-763-2373, [email protected]

Catalina Tresky, Defenders of Wildlife, (202) 772-0253, [email protected]

Preguntas de prensa en Español: Betsy Lopez-Wagner, (415) 217-2159, [email protected]