Wolf supporters, cattlemen face off at Capitol over Turner ranch permit denial

Only a few yards separated supporters of the Mexican gray wolf from ranchers and cattle industry representatives rallying Tuesday outside the state Capitol, but the ideological chasm between the two factions yawned much wider. About 10 members of the livestock industry gathered in a show of support for the State Game Commission’s decision this month to deny a permit for a wolf recovery and reintroduction assistance program at media mogul/philanthropist Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch. Turner’s property borders the Gila National Forest in Southern New Mexico, a gateway for wolves to reach private ranches, according to those who raise livestock for a living. Ranchers looked on skeptically as a much larger group of wildlife conservation advocates, some wearing mock wolf-head hats, tilted their heads upward and howled. They called on Gov. Susana Martinez to overturn the decision by her own appointed commission. Martinez on Tuesday was in Dallas for the Republican Governors Association Policy Summit. Kerrie Cox Romero, executive director of the New Mexico Council of Outfitters and Guides, echoed comments by state game commissioners as to why Turner’s ranch shouldn’t provide refuge for wolves. “This was the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s lack of follow-through with the Mexican wolf recovery plan that led to this denial,” she said. “We don’t see a reason to continue captive-breeding wolves if there’s no mechanism for release. Until the Fish and Wildlife Service comes together with a Mexican wolf recovery plan, with concrete numbers in terms of population goals and in terms of delisting objectives, then we completely stand behind the State Game Commission’s decision to deny the permit,” she said. On the other side of yellow “caution” tape placed by Capitol security personnel to separate the groups, Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity disagreed. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has in many respects been doing the bidding of the people who hate the wolves by ensuring that only very seldom are they released into the wild, and by, quite frankly, delaying [renewal] of the recovery plan.” Carlos Salazar, a rancher whose property is part of the Juan Bautista Valdez Land Grant near Abiquiú, hasn’t had to contend with wolf attacks on his livestock. But, he said, the reintroduction efforts represent a potential encroachment on historical property rights. He praised the governor for standing up to advocates for the wolves, saying, “She’s not afraid of them.”...more