Catron County targets new wolf

This is an attempt to remove yet another of the very endangered Mexican wolves who are now down to just 4 breeding pairs in the wild. Removal of this wolf would make it just 3 breeding pairs. Worse still, this female wolf is pregnant.

Because the Mexican wolves were derived from just 8 wolves, (they were that close to extinction) lack of genetic diversity is a serious issue. It is not just the small population size.

Catron County, NM has passed a county ordinance that they say trumps the federal government. They say they can kill a wolf if they please. This is flat out unconstitutional. This particular county has a habit of arguing the county is supreme to the nation-state. Catron County has long been the home of the county supremacy movement and assorted militia types. They need to be taught a lesson in jail, but it won’t happen under the weak-kneed Bush Administration.

Brief news story. County wants female wolf removed from the wild. Free New Mexican.com.

Added May 2. Here is more on the county supremacy movement. County Supremacy – Just Another Wise Use Ruse. by Ted Williams. The article emphasizes the rule of Catron County.

Added May 8. USFWS will leave the wolf in the wild. KVOA News.

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Idaho quietly assumes control over grizzlies.

A recovery program started in 1975 ended without fanfare Monday as Yellowstone’s grizzly bears were removed from the federal threatened species list. For most people, the major change is the maximum fine for shooting a grizzly bear. Read the rest: Idaho quietly assumes control over grizzlies. By Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman.

More: View of the Idaho Statesman. Long-term grizzly recovery depends on us.

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“Call order” may shut down all groundwater pumping in Snake River upstream of Twin Falls

Idaho groundwater pumpers could lose water. By Matt Christensen. Times-News writer.

This is of huge importance in Idaho, politically, economically, environmentally. It began with “a call” for water from two of Idaho’s many trout farms.

Most Western states follow the “prior appropriation doctrine” for water rights — the first persons to put the water “to beneficial” use, has the first rights when a shortage comes. Idaho is no exception, and it is one of the biggest irrigation states.

Until recently, when the water court ruled out the plain facts, it was a common belief that river flows and pumped groundwater were not related! When the Snake River (water rights) Adjudication Court ruled in favor of geological truth, millions of acres of land that had been put into irrigated production via pumped ground water upstream of Twin Falls, fell into the junior water rights category.

Now the pumpers day of reckoning may have finally come.

They have tried to put it off by various schemes such as a plan to divert the Snake River so it flows and sinks into the desert in the winter (to recharge aquifers), and even plotting to tax Idaho’s urban residents to pay for it.

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Absence of losses to grizzlies prompts Defenders to spend more on proactive measures

Because loss of livestock to grizzly bears has been so low, Defenders of Wildlife has free money to go further and act proactively. Here is a news release announcing this.

Defenders of Wildlife Expands Proactive Predator Conflict Prevention Program. Grizzly compensation funds reallocated to minimize grizzly-related conflicts before they occur

Statement by Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife

“In light of the successful recovery of the Yellowstone grizzly bear population and its subsequent removal from the endangered species list, Defenders of Wildlife will be shifting its focus in the Yellowstone ecoregion to the prevention of grizzly-livestock conflicts and will be devoting our resources towards more proactive projects to prevent livestock depredations.

Freudenthal’s opposition to gas drilling in the Wyoming Range

As gas wells spread like cancer across across the upper Green River basin, Wyoming’s governor is listening to public opinion and seems to be hardening his stance against the drive to drill the adjacent mountains on the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

 Freudenthal skeptical of Range drilling. By The Associated Press

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