By Roz Brown
Lobos have traveled between New Mexico and other border states for thousands of years but conservationists said construction of the border wall and their possible delisting as a threatened species are significant setbacks for New Mexico wolves.
President Donald Trump has given the Department of Interior until Dec. 3 to decide if Mexican gray wolves and gray wolves meet the recovery criteria required to delist them as “threatened.”
Mary Katherine Ray, wildlife chair for the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club, said just this month, a Mexican gray wolf named “Flor” crossed the southern border into New Mexico, demonstrating the need to protect cross-border habitat.
“Especially in this age where the climate is changing. Rather than making things harder for wildlife, we should be making things easier. They are still so close to the edge,” Ray cautioned.
Earlier this week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held back-to-back hearings on whether federal protection for wolves should be broadened or eliminated in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and elsewhere. The federal government argued gray wolves in the Lower 48 are not endangered and should be managed by states.
New Mexico wolves under protected status for 50 years
Mexican gray wolves have been listed as endangered species since 1976, following near-total eradication by the mid-20th century. In addition to gray and Mexican wolves, jaguars, deer, mountain lions and other large mammals traversed the region for thousands of years before border wall construction.
Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security issued a waiver of a variety of environmental, natural resource and land management laws to expedite construction of the new section of border barrier in Santa Teresa, an unincorporated community in New Mexico’s Doña Ana County.
Ray stressed biodiverse zones are succumbing to ecosystem destruction.
“We’re a wealthy country and we should care about our natural heritage. It belongs to everyone and the government should be acting on behalf of everyone to protect wildlife,” Ray asserted.
In southern Arizona, a giant cottonwood tree some 150 to 200 years old was chopped down Oct. 5 by federal contractors under the direction of U.S. Customs and Border Protection after authorities cleared out protesters who had been camping in the tree for more than two months to try to save it from destruction.
Related: What to know about the guy who owns the most land in New Mexico
