Click play to listen to this article.

The New Mexico Game Commission is weighing testimony from Catron County officials and residents who claim severe negative consequences of the reintroduction of New Mexican gray wolves.

A packed meeting in Reserve last Friday drew ranchers tallying cattle kills and stressing public safety, while supporters encouraged more patience for managing the lobos.

David Heft, former state wildlife biologist, said while officially the state has 162 wolves, he believes there are more. While helping a rancher trap coyotes in Catron County over a dozen nights, he was shocked to also trap and set free six non-collared wolves.

"These people are not exaggerating," Heft asserted. "What I saw as a biologist, I was dumbfounded. I mean apex predators don't naturally exist at those kinds of densities on the landscape."

Image

Gray wolves had nearly disappeared in the U.S. due to habitat loss, hunting and government eradication programs before they were added to the Endangered Species Act in 1974. After slowing repopulating, they were removed in 2020. The Mexican wolf remains on the endangered list but an Arizona congressman has introduced a federal law to remove them.

It is estimated livestock production contributes about $17 million to the state annually and ranchers say reimbursement for animals killed by wolves is not keeping up.

Nina Eydelman, chief program and policy officer for the group Animal Protection New Mexico, urged greater cooperation to end the wolf conflict.

"We request that you reject management strategies that rely on removing or killing wolves for having taken livestock," Eydelman stressed. "And instead, work with ranchers to implement nonlethal strategies to protect their animals."

Catron County officials have passed an emergency declaration over the wolf issue, asking the governor to help by deploying the state's National Guard.

Haydn Forward, a Catron County commissioner, said it is not a public relations stunt but rather a way to protect people from wolf encounters.

"We're reaching out to school children, we're certainly posting notices on trail heads and this is because of the saturation of wolves within Catron County," Forward explained. "It truly is not a PR stunt and it's not drama."

Leia Barnett, a lifelong New Mexico outdoorswoman and hunter, argued gray wolves are necessary for a fully functional ecosystem, and play an important part in the natural order.

"We have been prioritizing and perpetuating ourselves and our own interests for too long," Barnett contended. "We need healthy, functioning, ecosystems and that includes healthy, thriving populations of apex predators like Mexican gray wolves."