News From New Mexico Trappers on DNR law suit and Wolf reintroductions.

From the NM Trappers Association:
http://www.nmtrappers.com/
On Feb. 19 2014 the 10 circuit court vacated the appeal made by Wild Earth Guardians (the wolf lawsuit, Wild Earth Guardians Vs McClintic and Lane).

The appellate court remanded the case to district court with their older to vacate. The appeal only focused on McClintic (a single commissioner who lacked any authority to singularly affect a rule) and did not include Lane, i.e., did not include the Department of Game and Fish. The court found, (actually stated) that, in their oral arguments, Wild Earth conceded they had no standing in the case.

This is a clear victory for the State of NM, the NM Trappers and member groups of the NM Sportsman's and Landowners Coalition. At this time it is unclear if the summary judgement (case law) issued by the district judge will remain. The summary judgement was based on the merits of the case. The very best outcome at this point would be for District court to leave that portion of their ruling intact. This could happen since Wild Earth did not include Lane and the Department in their appeal and therefore the appellate courts ruling only would apply to McClinitic.

Thanks to all for your support

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A quote from The Real Wolf. http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Wolf-.../dp/159152122X

Dr. Matt Cronin, "This review indicates that the current state of North American wolf taxonomy is confusing and not definitive. However, the management of wolves in the U.S., first under the federal ESA, and then by states after the ESA-delisting, can be influenced by taxonomic assessments. Both populations in the northern U.S. Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes regions have been manged with considerable population increases. However, both populations are of questionable taxonomic status. As noted above, the wolves in the northern U.S. Rocky Mountains, were transplants of the northern timber wolf subspecies into the range of the plains wolf subspecies. The wolves in the western Great Lakes states are within the range of the plains wolf subspecies, but are also considered the eastern wolf species, and there has been mixing of the wolf subspecies in this area. There are also inconsistencies in which subspecies are considered important in some cases (e.g. the Mexican wolf), but subspecies designations ignored in others (e.g. introducing the non-native northern timber wolf subspecies into the northern U.S. Rocky Mountains. "

In other words science has nothing to do with the issue it's agenda and where they want wolves. Mexican wolf taxonomy is questionable according to the new science and even Distinct population segment classification they are planning on now is questionable since the most recent science also shows this wolf has genetic lineage linking it to the somewhat more Northern (than NM and Colorado) Rockies plains wolf as well. Scientifically, the new planning is entirely indefensible. We have ourselves an entirely new can of worms should we choose to analyze it and act on it.

Another quote from Dr. Cronin. "The near extinction of the plains and Mexican wolf subspecies makes attempts to characterize their genetic makeup particularly problematic because the living populations from which samples can be obtained may not represent the original genetic patterns."
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Your're already a criminal, you just haven't been arrested yet!

BPB Wayne Weekly News 1999