The investigation is over, and it shows that southwestern New Mexico ranchers and public officials were right. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was mishandling a program to return the Mexican grey wolf to the area and then lying about it.
The locals always knew something was amiss, and in July 2013 the Catron County Board of Commissioners filed a complaint that U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce forwarded to the Department of Interior Office of the Inspector General. Among findings in its just-released report, Fish and Wildlife:
- Falsified the location of multiple wolf kills;
- Lied in a press release about a wolf bite;
- Manipulated scientific data;
- Sought to manipulate a USDA investigator to falsify findings about wolf kills;
- Protected “genetically valuable” wolves, even after they preyed on cattle;
- Did not fully compensate ranchers for cattle killed by wolves;
- Failed to warn residents when wolves were near;
- Failed to properly manage the interagency field team.
Blame for all this is being directed toward a single staffer who coordinated a field team in Catron County between 2011 and 2013, and who has conveniently been reassigned to another area. A Fish and Wildlife spokesman says the current coordinator “considers this matter closed and resolved.” Of course.
But Pearce isn’t buying it: “The upper level management of the Fish and Wildlife Service is tolerating a culture of lies, deception and outright manipulation of data. I think a whole overhaul is needed.”
He’s right. Locals say the situation has not improved much since the complaint was filed. And, if the report is correct, a problem was simply shipped off to another area – and if done in typical federal bureaucracy style, it could easily have been done as a promotion with more money. Clearly lying and manipulating scientific data aren’t firing offenses at the agency.
Last year, New Mexico’s Game and Fish Department tried to block Fish and Wildlife from releasing more wolves into the wild, but the feds did it anyway. A lawsuit is pending.
Source: Editorial: IG’s report reveals lies and manipulation on wolves | Albuquerque Journal