Page 28 - aruba-today-20170123

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 23 January 2017

States argue in court for more say over endangered species

DAN ELLIOTT that it would be harmed by
Associated Press the release of more wolves,
DENVER (AP) — The federal and how much harm it
government asked an ap- would suffer.
peals court Wednesday to The three judges who
overturn an order that bars heard the case did not say
the release of endangered when they would decide.
wolves in New Mexico with- Appeals court judges gen-
out the state’s permission, a erally take weeks or months
skirmish in a broader battle to issue a ruling.
over states’ rights and the Reintroducing wolves is al-
Endangered Species Act. ways contentious because
New Mexico and 18 other they sometimes attack do-
states argue that the law mestic livestock as well as
requires the U.S. Fish and wild game. Last year, the
Wildlife Service to coop- Interior Department’s in-
erate with them on how ternal watchdog said Fish
endangered species are and Wildlife had not fulfilled
reintroduced within their its obligation to remove
borders. Federal attorneys Mexican gray wolves that
counter that the law allows preyed on pets and cattle.
the agency to go around a The Mexican wolf program
state, if necessary, to save In this undated file photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a Mexican gray wolf has had other problems,
a species. leaves cover at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro County, N.M. including multiple failed at-
Many of the arguments at- Associated Press tempts to update the origi-
torneys made to the 10th and economic develop- state. New Mexico also an- tect the wolves. nal 1982 recovery plan. Fish
Circuit Court of Appeals ment. nounced it might sue the A coalition of environmen- and Wildlife has agreed to
in Denver on Wednesday And even if the court sides agency. tal groups, led by Defend- produce a new plan this
focused on the legality of with the Fish and Wild- Fish and Wildlife decided to ers of Wildlife, intervened year to settle a lawsuit filed
the court order restricting life Service, it’s not clear release more wolves any- on Interior’s side, argu- by conservation groups.
the release of more wolves, whether president-elect way, citing an urgent need ing the state’s interpreta- New Mexico officials also
not the broader issue of the Donald Trump’s administra- to expand the wild popula- tion would wrongly give complain that federal of-
states’ role in restoring en- tion will continue to fight af- tion to prevent inbreeding. the state veto power over ficials tripled the target
dangered species. ter he takes office. New Mexico officials went measures to save a feder- number of wolves in the
But in hundreds of pages of The dispute before the 10th to court, and a federal ally protected species. wild — from about 100 to
court filings, the states and Circuit is over a Fish and judge in New Mexico issued New Mexico state attorney 300 — without sufficient jus-
the federal government Wildlife Service program to a preliminary injunction last Matthias L. Sayer told the tification.
staked out opposing posi- restore the Mexican gray year blocking further re- judges that Fish and Wildlife Only about 100 Mexican
tions on who has the final wolf to parts of its original leases while the dispute is had made it difficult for the gray wolves live in the wild.
say. range in New Mexico and resolved. state to manage big game They nearly disappeared in
The fight is unfolding amid Arizona. At Wednesday’s hearing, because of uncertainty the 1970s, and the federal
uncertainty about the fu- New Mexico has multiple Justice Department attor- about how many wolves — government added them
ture of the Endangered complaints about the way ney Rachel Heron argued which prey on big game — to the endangered spe-
Species Act. Congress and the program is managed, against the state’s rights would be released. cies list in 1976. The U.S. Fish
the White House will both and in 2015 it refused to position, saying the Inte- But one of the judges, and Wildlife Service began
be controlled by Republi- issue a permit to Fish and rior Department — Fish and Scott Matheson Jr., ques- reintroducing them in New
cans who generally see it Wildlife to release more Wildlife’s parent agency tioned whether New Mex- Mexico and Arizona start-
as an impediment to jobs of the predators in the — is required by law to pro- ico could show definitively ing in 1998.q