On June 12, the Navajo County Board of Supervisors approved a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, requesting that the U.S. Department of Interior engage with the State of Arizona to organize long-term funding of fair compensation for ranchers and livestock owners in the Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan.
After 20 years, the fight to save the Mexican gray wolf continues amid frustration on both sides of the issues. In 2017, it was estimated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) that 114 wolves were living in the wild, an improvement from the original four males and one pregnant female that were capture in the late 1970s as a result of the collaborative efforts of the United States and Mexico to save the animal from extinction. Those five animals were used to start the captive breeding program, which is managed for maximum genetic integrity by experts with the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan.
The prime objective of the Recovery Plan states: “To conserve and ensure the survival of Canis lupus baileyi by maintaining a captive breeding program and re-establishing a viable, self-sustaining population of at least 100 Mexican wolves in the middle to high elevations of a 5,000-square-mile area within the Mexican wolf’s historic range.”
As part of that plan, the Mexican gray wolf was released into the remote recovery areas of Arizona and New Mexico in 1998, beginning a battle between those who wanted to see the species survive and ranchers and livestock owners who wanted to maintain their livelihood.
While compensation plans were created to offset the losses, they have not been enough as the letter from the board to Zinke states: “The eastern Arizona counties are uniquely affected by the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program, including the Mexican Wolf Nonessential Experimental Population Area, which is located within the Eastern Arizona Counties. A large portion of the depredations on farm and domestic animals inflicted by Mexican wolves take place within the Eastern Arizona Counties; and, a large proportion of the negative economic impacts of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan is born by the rural ranching community within the eastern Arizona counties.”
The letter further states, “Consequently, Navajo County would like to emphasize that the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program that is considered an asset to society by its proponents cannot continue to be managed as a liability to a small subset of society, namely the Arizona and New Mexico ranchers who are disproportionately affected by the negative economic impacts of the program, and the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) that provides the bulk of the field personnel that manages the program. It is only fair to request that the American society at large should bear the cost of the Mexican Wolf Recovery program, by offsetting equitably the economic imposed on the ranching communities and AGFD.”
The letter also notes that depredations compensation funding, which directly offsets the economic loss for animals killed or injured by the wolves, is estimated to be $250,000 annually.
Funding for proactive conflict avoidance measures, which includes deployment of range riders, construction of fences or pens, change of grazing allotments, etc., has an annual funding requirement estimated at $250,000 annually.
Pay for Presence funding, a compensation set at a rate based on the number of livestock and number of wolves and the proactive implementation of adaptive management of livestock to reduce conflict, has an annual funding requirement of $1.5 million.
The final funding source is AGFD, which is critical for the field management and “first responders” of the program, has an annual funding requirement of $600,000 for the staffing of the AGFD Mexican wolf team.
The letter further stated, “AGFD documentation notes that approximately 10 percent of the historical Mexican wolf habitat is located in the United States, with 90 percent of it located in Mexico. Even with the changes of climate and habitat it is logical that recovery efforts in the U.S. alone, no matter how successful, will not produce the numbers necessary for delisting. Funding needs in Mexico are likely to be nine times greater than funding needed in Arizona and New Mexico. Every dollar spent in Mexico is one more dollar that does not need to be spent here. Considering the U.S. Fish and Wildlife expectation that the recovery and delisting will be a multi-generational effort expanding into the next 25 to 35 years, inflation costs need to be included.”
The Mexican Wolf Recovery Program cost, as of the end of 2017, was an estimated $38 million, with the annual wolf count being 114 in the U.S. This represents a societal investment of more than $330,000 per wolf.
The letter ends by stating, “The half dozen annual illegal mortalities, plus the few lethal removal of problem wolves each year, would finance, at the rate of $330,000 lost per wolf, well over $2 million per year. Navajo County respectfully urges you to bring a fresh perspective to the issue of fair compensation of the economic loss incurred by the communities that host the Mexican Wolf Recovery effort.”
According to the USFWS records, in an eight year period from 2008 to 2015, there were 193 confirmed livestock deaths from the wolves as well as 30 confirmed livestock injuries, 10 dog injuries and one dog fatality.
