Officials using outdated and incorrect information when claiming They didnt live in Utah…. How in the hell would Officials even know??? Were they There? I dont think soooo….!!!!
ST. GEORGE – State and local wildlife officials are opposing the possibility of Southern Utah being included in a recovery zone for the endangered Mexican gray wolf.
Federal wildlife officials are revising a recovery plan for the Mexican gray wolf, after three failed attempts in the past two decades, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists facilitating Mexican wolf recovery are scheduled to meet this month outside Tucson, Ariz., with state representatives and other stakeholders.
In a letter to the Department of the Interior, the Utah Wildlife Board said research shows the species never lived in Utah and allowing or encouraging the wolves to live in Utah would harm the state’s big game population, the Associated Press reported.
The board’s letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell dovetails with a similar letter sent last month by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and governors in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, the Associated Press reported. In January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife decided to list the Mexican wolf, a smaller subspecies of the gray wolf, as endangered. Federal wildlife officials estimate there are 110 Mexican wolves in the wild.
“There is no historical evidence that (Southern Utah) was ever historic habitat for the Mexican wolf, anywhere in the state of Utah actually,” Lynn Chamberlain said. Chamberlain is the conservation outreach manager for the southern region of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Mexican gray wolves in Southern Utah? Wildlife officials say ‘no’ | St George News.