Forwarded by Jane Clark at [log in to unmask]
This article relates to the grazing issue.
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Subject: Action Alert: MEXICAN WOLF PACK TO LOSE FREEDOM
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 23:13:08 -0800
From: "Ed Smith" <[log in to unmask]>

Hello everyone:

Please read carefully the following message from the Center for
Biological Diversity (formerly the Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity).

This alert makes manifestly clear the rampant power of the livestock
industry. Their "War Against the Wolf" continues unabated today and
with the same virulence as in times past.

This is not the only case. Our federal government is now killing
wolves in Montana's Tom Miner Basin just north of Yellowstone National
Park because of a few earlier sheep depredations.

Incidences such as those reported here convince me that we can never
restore native wildlife upon our public lands so long as even one
domestic animal that is an investment of a private business (i.e.,
commercial) grazes upon those lands.


Best wishes,

Edward M. Smith
Chair, Wildlife Committee
Sierra Club, Loma Prieta Chapter

 *****
January 13, 2000

MEXICAN WOLF PACK TO LOSE FREEDOM

First Pack to Migrate into Gila National Forest Targeted for
Incarceration

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began trapping the Gavilan Pack of
Mexican wolves yesterday, and has announced that the alpha male will
never be re-released, and perhaps none of the pack will ever be freed.

Last fall, the Gavilan Pack which consists of a mated pair, a yearling
male, and five pups preyed on cattle that were being illegally
grazed by rancher, Carlyle Cathcart, in the Apache National Forest.

More recently, the pack successfully migrated into the western
boundary of the Gila National Forest, as was hoped. On both
the Apache and the Gila National Forests, severe overgrazing
has reduced the number of natural prey available for the
wolves. Thus, the wolves are left with little choice but
to scavenge cattle carcasses, or prey on cattle.

Today's decision to remove the Gavilan Pack jeopardizes the recovery
of the most endangered mammal in North America. There may be as few
as 19 Mexican wolves left in the wild today, and removing the
Gavilan Pack will leave just eleven. Fish & Wildlife has already
captured the entire Pipestem Pack, the first Mexican wolves to
reproduce successfully in the wild in the U.S. in over 70 years.
After first indicating the Pipestem Pack would quickly be freed
in the Gila Wilderness, the agency has instead kept them in pens
for over six months.

The success of the Mexican wolf recovery program is premised on
getting wolves into the Gila National Forest, where over
700,000 acres, mostly in designated wilderness, are currently
cattle free. That is over a thousand square miles. Direct
releases to the Gila have so far been stymied by the
livestock industry's political pressure. Now, the Gavilan Pack is
migrating into the Gila on their own, only to run into a
minefield of illegal grazing, severe overstocking and undisposed
of cattle carcasses along the way. Removing these wolves from
the wild amounts to renouncing the promise of a corridor between
Arizona's Blue Primitive Area and New Mexico's Gila Wilderness.

Please call Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to protest the U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service decision to remove from the wild the Gavilan Pack.
Tell him to immediately cease trapping and let the Gavilan Pack roam
free.  Tell him also that any wolves already trapped should be
immediately released into the Gila Wilderness. (202) 208-7351.

 ___________________________________________________________
> Shane Jimerfield
> Assistant Director
> Center for Biological Diversity
> Tel: 520.623.5252, ext 302 Fax: 520.623.9797
> PO Box 710, Tucson AZ 85702-0710 http

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