A coalition of conservation and environmental organizations filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wednesday — alleging that the agency has failed to develop a valid recovery plan for the endangered Mexican gray wolf.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Arizona, seeks a court order for the development of such a plan.
“The opportunity to recover the Mexican gray wolf is slipping away due to genetic problems and inadequate management policies, but the government still hasn’t created the basic recovery blueprint that the law requires,” said Timothy Preso, an attorney for the Earthjustice organization who is representing the groups. “We are asking a judge to order federal officials to develop a scientifically-grounded recovery plan before it is too late.”
Earthjustice is representing Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, retired Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator David Parsons, the Endangered Wolf Center and the Wolf Conservation Center.
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“With only 83 individuals and five breeding pairs in the wild at last report, Mexican gray wolves remain at serious risk of extinction,” says a news release distributed by the groups. “The recovery plan, a blueprint for rebuilding an endangered species population to sustainable levels, is necessary to ensure the lobos’ survival and is legally required under the Endangered Species Act.”
The groups acknowledge that the Fish and Wildlife Service developed a document labeled a “recovery plan” in 1982, but they maintain that the agency has never written or implemented a “legally sufficient” Mexican gray wolf recovery plan.
“For three decades now, Fish and Wildlife officials have been dragging their feet on completing a recovery plan simply to appease state leaders and special interest groups opposed to sharing the landscape with wolves,” said Michael Robinson, of the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s shameful that the very people charged with recovering our wildlife have turned their backs on these beautiful creatures, leaving them to battle inbreeding and a host of other threats pushing them to the brink of extinction.”
Jeff Humphrey, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
“The service doesn’t have a response or a statement,” Humphrey said. “Once something has gone to litigation, we don’t comment on the basis or merits.”
Instead, he referred a reporter to a passage in a 2010 Mexican Wolf Conservation Assessment by the Fish and Wildlife Service. It reads: “Substantial progress in securing the Mexican wolf from extinction has been made over the last 30 years. Given this progress, and in light of the Blue Range population’s current status, it is time to shift the focus of the recovery program from the ‘brink of extinction’ toward pursuit of full recovery.”
