ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - It was more than 15 years ago, on March 29, 1998, when the first Mexican gray wolves were re-introduced into the wild in the Southwest.

David Parsons was the first Mexican wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the time. The now-retired wildlife biologist said he believes every wild animal should be allowed to exist in nature. He said modern science on wolf ecology is increasingly documenting the important role the Mexican wolf plays in ecosystems, and provided an example from Yellowstone National Park.

"When the wolves were taken out of Yellowstone National Park, the elk populations exploded and they essentially ate everything down to the ground," he recalled. "The beavers disappeared and songbirds disappeared. And with the return of the wolves, we're now seeing the reverse of that. So, they really are important in maintaining biodiversity in our ecosystems," Parsons said.

According to Parsons, when Mexican wolves were eradicated from the wild in the early 1900s, only seven animals were saved and those seven were bred in captivity for years before being returned to the wild. Geneticists who have been studying the situation have recommended solutions to inbreeding which include releasing more wolves into the wild. Scientists had thought there would be more than 100 lobos in the wild by the end of 2006. So far, there are only 75.

According to the biologist, the project has not gone as predicted. Parsons acknowledges that 75 wolves in the wild is the highest number ever reached by that population. But the number is still lower than scientists had expected. Among the reasons for that are illegal killing, cars, and natural causes. But one of the main issues concerns policies followed by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"For many years the agency was removing too many wolves from the wild to address conflict between wolves and livestock," Parsons charged. "And we were more or less forced politically to put boundaries around the recovery area."

Those boundaries are still at issue today. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit last week challenging a Fish and Wildlife Service permit that allows federal and state agencies to capture wolves that enter New Mexico and Arizona from either the north or south and keep them in captivity indefinitely.

Parsons said however that the future of the Mexican wolves could still be bright, depending upon how the re-introduction project is managed.

"The agencies have been lagging way behind in terms of getting the wolves released into the wild," he asserted. "The most looming problem is one relating to the genetics, problems that lead to inbreeding, depression."

Parsons said that responding to these challenges by increasing the number of wolves released into the wild is something the agencies in charge have thus far failed to do.

Those 75 surviving wolves and the re-introduction program will be celebrated from 6 to 10 p.m. this Friday at O'Neill's Pub in Albuquerque.






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Following the torture of a wolf by a Wyoming man, a state panel is seeking a bill to protect the killing of predators with vehicles, but Federal lawmakers are pushing back.

After Cody Roberts in February hit a gray wolf with his snowmobile, taped its mouth shut and brought the injured animal to a bar, he was fined just $250 and an international outcry followed.

The gray wolf was removed from the federal endangered species list in 2021. In Wyoming, it is considered a "predator" and is legal to kill. The state's newly formed Treatment of Predators Working Group approved a bill, which clarified using vehicles to run over "predators," a practice called "whacking," is legal, as long as all "reasonable efforts to kill" the injured animal are then taken.

Elaine Leslie, retired agency chief of biological resources for the National Park Service, said Wyoming "sanctions this kind of behavior."

"The dialogue during that meeting was focused on, 'Oh, we can't identify or articulate the exact meaning of the word humane or ethical. So let's take that out of the bill,'" Leslie recounted.

In an opposing move, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., last week introduced a bill to prohibit the intentional use of motor vehicles to harm wildlife on federal lands, establish a protocol for enforcement and penalties and maintain exemptions for human safety.

The bill is co-sponsored by legislators in North Carolina, Florida and Louisiana but notably none in the Mountain West, where the practice of "whacking" coyotes and wolves is legal in several states, as a practice distinct from hunting.

Leslie pointed out the behavior is likely happening elsewhere, too.

"We have no idea what the extent of this behavior is nationally," Leslie acknowledged. "I think it does need to have national attention and be a national bill right now."

A Wyoming legislative committee will hear recommendations from the Treatment of Predators Working Group Sept. 30.


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Two conservation groups have filed suit in a federal court in Montana to stop a U.S. Forest Service logging project that would clear cut large stands of trees, and carve over 24 miles of new logging roads into the Bitterroot National Forest.

The Forest Service says this is the most efficient way to manage the old growth forest.

But Alliance for the Wild Rockies Executive Director Mike Garrity said the Forest Service's plan for logging on the Gold Butterfly project threatens critical habitat for a host of species, because it leaves only eight trees standing on each acre of old growth forest in the project area in the Bitterroot.

"Eight trees on an area a little bigger than a football field," said Garrity. "Nobody would call that an old-growth forest. Old-growth forests are very thick forests with big trees, younger trees, standing dead trees, and fallen over trees."

The Forest Service says based on an Environmental Impact Statement, the Gold Butterfly project is the best and most efficient way to manage old growth in the Bitterroot.

The suit awaits action in a U.S. District Court in Missoula.

Garrity said the Forest Service's logging plan to leave that part of the Bitterroot so barren threatens habitats of the pileated woodpecker, pine martin and goshawk, among others.

"There are also grizzly bears in the area," said Garrity. "There was a successful wolverine den there recently, where the wolverine produced kits. Both are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act."

The groups that filed the suit are asking the federal court to rule the project illegal.

They offer the opinions of over 3,000 people who weighed in against the project as evidence that the public doesn't want any more logging roads in old-growth forests.

Groups in Oregon are warning wolf poaching poses a threat, not just to the creatures targeted but to people who enjoy the outdoors.

Poaching was a big issue in 2023 and again this year, especially through poisoning.

Bethany Cotton, conservation director for nonprofit conservation organization Cascadia Wildlands, said the wolf population did not grow in 2023 for the first time since the species returned to the state and a high rate of deaths has continued in 2024, largely caused by humans.

In May, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife started warning recreationists to keep their dogs on leashes because of potential exposure to poisoning meant to illegally kill wolves.

Cotton noted she decided against visiting eastern Oregon because of it.

"I have two rescue dogs, and I was invited to some friends' property out there and to spend some time out there this summer and I chose not to go," Cotton recounted. "Because it's too high a risk to go camp or hike in that part of the state right now knowing that this is happening."

Cotton acknowledged the investigation into a wolf's death takes time but poisonings are indiscriminate. In February, a poisoned cow carcass in Hells Canyon National Recreation Area killed three wolves, two golden eagles, a mountain lion and a coyote. The poaching led to the Department of Fish and Wildlife's May warning. The wolf count was 178 at the end of 2023.

Groups have banded together to take on poachers with the Turn-In-Poachers program. The collaboration is between O-D-F-W, the Oregon State Police, the Oregon Hunters Association, the Oregon Wildlife Coalition, the Oregon Outfitter and Guides Association and the Oregon State Marine Board. Rewards have been offered for tips on poachers but have not led to any arrests or convictions.

Cotton wants to see the silence around poaching events broken.

"We really do hope that those with knowledge about this poisoning incidents or future poisonings will come forward because of the possibility and the reality that it impacts far more than wolves," Cotton emphasized. "It impacts lots of other species and has impacted dogs and very likely will again in the future."

Cotton added healthy wolf populations are good for humans, including controlling diseases like chronic wasting disease in deer and elk and reducing vehicular accidents with deer.

"They bring a lot of benefits to the landscape," Cotton stressed. "It's been a huge success story that wolves naturally recolonized Oregon after having been absent for so many decades, and we just need to really learn to coexist with them like humans and wolves did for millennia."