On Friday, October 16, 2015, Safari Club International filed suit to challenge the federal government’s recent revisions to the rules experimental Mexican wolf reintroduction program. Approximately one week later, the Alamo Band of Navajos passed a resolution in opposition to the expansion of the wolf recovery program.
According to First For Hunters, Safari Club Internationa (SCI) “has long been involved with the experimental population strategy for species recovery. Together with the SCI Foundation and SCI’s Alaska chapters, SCI contributed to the recent reintroduction of an experimental Wood Bison population in Alaska. Unlike the recent Mexican wolf rule revisions, the regulations pertaining to the Alaska Wood Bison population were the product of an agreement reached by the FWS, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and stakeholder groups. SCI is concerned that incorrect and/or illegal use of the experimental population strategy such as being used for Mexican wolves could undermine the future use of experimental populations and could prevent the success of future reintroduction and recovery efforts that require the willing participation of affected states and private stakeholders.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service modified the regulations pertaining to the wolf January 2015 and failed to gain an agreement between the federal government, states and private stakeholders, as required by the Endangered Species Act, according to SCI.
In their resolution, the Alamo Band of Navajos (ABN) note that the January modification provided “for a fourfold expansion of the area where Mexican wolves primarily are expected to occur, and a tenfold increase in the area where Mexican wolves can initially be released from captivity.”
According to the ABN’s resolution, C.F.R. 1508.5 provides that tribal governments may serve as cooperating agencies during the EIS process if they have either jurisdiction by law or special expertise: and the United States Fish & Wildlife Service was legally obligated to fully consult with the Alamo Navajo Chapter from the initiation of any consideration of such an effort.
The ABN asserts that the Fish & Wildlife Service “totally ignored our customs, culture, and the economy of our community, as well as violated the United States Government trust responsibilities in the process.
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The ABN explain that the “expansion of the wolf recovery area will directly and detrimentally impact the Alamo Navajo Chapter’s land use and wildlife management efforts, wildlife populations on the Reservation, the game available to tribal members for subsistence hunting, and the Tribe’s livestock and ranching industry and the economy dependent upon those resource.
The resolution reads in part:
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alamo Navajo Chapter stands in stark opposition of the Record of Decision and Final Rule in regard to the wolf Recovery Program, and maintains that this decision is a blatant violation of NEPA requirements.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alamo Navajo Chapter encourages the United States Fish & Wildlife Service to undertake its legal obligation to fully consult with the Chapter on any proposal to expand the wolf recovery arearnthe State of New Mexico and to coordinate any such efforts with the chapter’s land use and wildlife management policies.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alamo Navajo Chapter calls upon our representatives in the U.S. House of Representative and the U.S. Senate to call for an investigation into the Fish & Wildlife Service’s disregard of the positions of the Chapter, and to de-fund the wolf recovery program.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the Chairman or in his absence the Vice-Chair is authorized to undertake actions necessary to implement this resolution and that copies be sent to United States Fish & Wildlife Service, the State of New Mexico Game and Fish Commission, the members of the New Mexico congressional delegation, and the Secretary of the Interior.
Those actions may involve lawsuits.