The purpose of this diary is to put the high beams on a review of the Red Wolf Recovery Program being conducted by the Wildlife Management Institute, a private consulting organization hired for this purpose by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The review was requested by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, later joined by the N.C. Farm Bureau and the NC Sportsmen's Caucus. This is a special review which falls outside the usual 5-year review for Endangered Species programs. It follows a ruling by U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle in May of 2014, stopping by injunction all hunting of coyotes in the five-county red wolf recovery area in eastern North Carolina. During 2013, 9 red wolves, or about 10 percent of their total population in the wild on Planet Earth, all on the Albemarle Peninsula, were killed by gunshot. The North Carolina Wildlife Commission had relaxed rules for coyote hunting, allowing nighttime spotlight hunting of coyotes in the red wolf recovery area. The Motion for Emergency Relief was filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
https://www.southernenvironment.org/...
The customary 5-year review for Endangered Species programs is required to be published in the Federal Register; this review was not. Periods for solicitation of public comments are also required to be published in the Federal Register; for this review, no such publication has occurred.
This special review was announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Southeast Regional Office in a press release on August 29, the Friday beginning Labor Day weekend. The review is to be completed in 60 days, ending October 10. Therefore, the review was announced more than two weeks after said review had actually begun. This review process offers an extremely truncated period for public comment (two weeks, ending September 12, which includes the three days of the holiday weekend).
http://www.fws.gov/...
Two evenings for comment, referred to as "public focus group sessions," are scheduled, one in Swan Quarter, NC, on Wednesday, September 10, and one in Columbia, NC, on September 11, the day before closure on public comments. Focus groups are usually employed as a marketing tool, not as a forum for taking comments on public policy, which are quite formal and usually have strict rules. These two evening sessions are scheduled mid-week in difficult-to-reach locations, unless you happen to live near there, despite the fact that this is a federal program in which many Americans have an interest.
The public may also complete a survey at http://jgassett.polldaddy.com/.... I've read that you get kicked out of the survey if you answer questions #3 and #4 incorrectly, and you cannot proceed to answer the questions on page 2. Hints: Historical range is Eastern US, and the current restoration program encompasses five counties. Question #8 is improper, as it assumes a presumption of risk. You may want to rearrange the "risks" or your survey might be thrown out due to not answering all the questions. The last three items allow you to comment on your selected answers.
Jonathan Gassett, the conductor of the survey, is the Field Representative for the Southeast with the Wildlife Management Institute. (Credentials in link below.)
http://www.kentucky.com/...
The WMI appears heavily oriented to wildlife management for sport. Their motto at the top of their home page, "In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen" -- Theodore Roosevelt. Their board of directors is heavily weighted with officers of sport shooting organizations--National Shooting Sports Foundation, ATK Security and Sporting, Boone and Crockett Club, Pheasants Forever. This is the consultant group chosen to evaluate the Red Wolf Recovery Program.
http://wildlifemanagementinstitute.org/
On the NC Wildlife Resource Commission's website, under the "News" and "Alerts" seeking public input about the Red Wolf Recovery Program, not only do they leave out the word "Recovery," but the words "Endangered Species" are never mentioned. However, the words "non-essential experimental wolf population" are used repeatedly. This phrase refers to a 1982 amendment to the Endangered Species Act which allows some populations of imperiled species to be treated as expendable. NEP status was a good-faith effort by FWS to give biologists flexibility in working with landowners. The NC State Wildlife Commission has consistently taken the position that red wolves with NEP status have no protections, and red wolves are granted NEP status only on national wildlife refuge and national park lands. Their protection status is murky on private and state lands.
The state went along with predator hunter lobbyists and expanded hunting rules for coyotes to include night-time hunting and spotlighting, with no bag limits and no season, and with no concessions to protect red wolves. So now the state is smarting from the smackdown by the federal judge, who put an injunction on all coyote hunting in the five-county red wolf recovery area. Pressure from somewhere was applied, and the Red Wolf Recovery Program is now facing what appears to be a hasty, under-the-radar "special review" conducted by a private wildlife management group.
The issues regarding the red wolf's genetic heritage and the ongoing issue of hybridization with coyotes are complex. They are covered in meticulous detail in "The Secret World of Red Wolves: The Fight to Save North America's Other Wolf," by T. DeLene Beeland, published in June of 2013 by UNC Press. She chronicles the difficult and complicated history of the reintroduction of red wolves into the wild. Her book is extremely thorough, well written, well researched, and fascinating.
http://www.amazon.com/...
I am heavily indebted to Beeland's research in her book and the content of her blog entry about this issue for the factual content of this diary.
http://sciencetrio.wordpress.com/...
If you want to express your views about the Red Wolf Recovery Program, they may be sent to redwolfreview@fws.gov. Informed, courteous comments will probably receive the most attention. The comment period closes on Friday, September 12.
The Red Wolf Recovery Program belongs to all Americans, and indeed the world, since the only red wolves existing in the wild, about 90 to 100, live in the 1.7 million acres of the Albemarle Peninsula in North Carolina. The program is 27 years old; the first eight red wolves were released into the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on September 14, 1987. If you are knowledgeable about this program and the issues currently surrounding it, please contribute your information. Thanks.
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