For Immediate Release, March 16, 2023

Contact:

Jacqueline Covey, Defenders of Wildlife, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Emily Renn, Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, (928) 202-1325, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Devon Naples, New Mexico Wild, (505) 843-8696, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity, (575) 313-7017, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Erin Hunt, Lobos of the Southwest, (928) 421-0187, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Events in Arizona, New Mexico to Mark Silver Anniversary of Mexican Gray Wolves in the Wild

SILVER CITY, N.M.— Public events throughout the Southwest this spring will mark the 25th anniversary of the first release of Mexican gray wolves into the wild.

Mexican gray wolves were reintroduced into the Apache National Forest of eastern Arizona on March 29, 1998. One of the most endangered mammals in North America, this small, unique arid-lands wolf is still on the path to recovery.  

Lessons learned and a celebration of progress will mark in-person and online events in Arizona and New Mexico.

Events include:

• March 22, noon to 1:30 p.m. MST: Defenders of Wildlife’s Craig Miller will host a web discussion following a presentation: “The Silver Anniversary: 25 Years Coexisting with Mexican Gray Wolves.”
• March 25, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. MST: Film screening and panel discussion at the Phoenix Zoo, 455 N. Galvin Parkway, with Craig Miller of Defenders of Wildlife and Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity.
• March 28, 7 p.m. MST: Sunny Dooley, Diné/Navajo storyteller, will share the traditional “Story of Leadership and The Wisdom of the Wolf” at the Shrine of the Ages auditorium, Grand Canyon Village, Arizona. Visit www.gcwolfrecovery.org for more information.
• March 30, 5:30 to 8 p.m. MDT: Film screening and presentation from New Mexico Wild Staff Attorney Sally Paez, the Center for Biological Diversity’s Michael Robinson, Defenders of Wildlife’s Craig Miller and Project Coyote’s David Parsons at the Student Union Building theater, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Visit www.nmwild.org for more information.
• April 12, noon to 1:30 pm MST: Online webinar with Philip Hedrick, Ph.D., professor emeritus at Arizona State University, and Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity: Mexican wolf genetics and the losses caused by politicized management.
• April 13, 5 to 8 p.m. MDT: Music by the Gypsy Carpenters and a presentation from the Center for Biological Diversity’s Michael Robinson, Little Toad Creek Brewery and Distillery, 200 N. Bullard St., Silver City, New Mexico.

Planning is underway and additional events will be announced. Events are organized by the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, Lobos of the Southwest, New Mexico Wild, Project Coyote, the Rewilding Institute, Upper Gila Watershed Alliance, Wild Arizona and Wolf Conservation Center.

More information, including updated event listings, will be posted on the Lobos of the Southwest homepage.

Media Contacts:
Emily Renn, 928-202-1325, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For immediate release: March 13, 2023

Navajo Story to Celebrate the Return of Wolves in the Southwest

FLAGSTAFF, AZ — The Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project will host a special event featuring the traditional Diné/Navajo winter story about leadership and the wisdom of the wolf (Mai Tso) told by storyteller and folklorist Sunny Dooley at the Shrine of the Ages auditorium at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, at 7 pm. Appropriate for all ages, this Navajo tale shares culturally grounded lessons of leadership and demonstrates that nature is a powerful teacher for humankind. This event is free and open to the public with Grand Canyon National Park admission.

Sunny Dooley, a well-known and gifted Diné/Navajo storyteller, will tell the story in English, unfolding in rich and entertaining detail how two mammals, two birds, and an instigator insect changed the world by bringing integrity to leadership and a voice to all the people.

March 29, 2023, marks the 25th anniversary of the first release of endangered Mexican gray wolves back into the wild in Arizona. While no known wolves live around the Grand Canyon, it was once a part of their historic habitat in the southwest and is an important place that provides suitable habitat for their eventual return. As of the last official population count for the end of 2022, there are 241 Mexican gray wolves in the wilds of Arizona and New Mexico today. According to Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project’s Executive Director Emily Renn, the 25th anniversary of the reintroduction program and a wolf population having gone from zero to now over 200 individuals in the wild are major milestones worth celebrating. She says, “We’re excited to hear Sunny share this positive traditional tale, reminding us of the important role of wolves, and evoking their presence in the places they are returning, both on the landscape and in our lives.”

EVENT DETAILS:
March 28, 2023, at the Shrine of the Ages, South Rim of the Grand Canyon
20 S Entrance Rd, Grand Canyon Village, AZ 86023
Doors open: 6:30 pm. Storytelling begins: 7:00 pm MST/AZ time
For more information: Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., (928) 202-1325. http://www.gcwolfrecovery.org

For immediate release: February 28, 2023

Media contacts:

Greta Anderson, Western Watersheds Project, (520) 623-1878; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Chris Smith, WildEarth Guardians, (505) 395-6177; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Michelle Lute, Project Coyote, (406) 848-4910; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Emily Renn, Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, (928) 202-1325, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sally Paez, New Mexico Wild, (505) 350-0664, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Renee Seacor, The Rewilding Institute, (845) 402-0018, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

CONSERVATION GROUPS CELEBRATE RECORD MEXICAN WOLF POPULATION BUT CAUTION AGAINST USING NUMBERS ALONE TO MEASURE RECOVERY

TUCSON, Ariz.– While applauding the record-breaking Mexican wolf population announced today by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”), conservation groups noted that, with lobos, it is not just the total numbers that matter. Though 241 wild lobos is a sign of progress for the program, and a 23 percent increase over last year is remarkable, the genetic diversity of the wild population still needs improvement. Moreover, there are indicators that lobos need more room to roam beyond the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area.

“The Service did well by keeping wolves in the wild last year, which surely helped increase the population,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. “If the wildlife management agencies and the states would drop their opposition to adult and family pack releases, we could also help improve the genetics of the free-roaming lobos, which they desperately need.”

The 2022 year-end count found at least 136 lobos in New Mexico and 105 lobos in Arizona distributed across 59 packs. The 2021 count of 196 had been the smallest percentage increase since reintroductions began.

The Colorado Sun (Original) Posted December 8, 2022 by Elizabeth Miller

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is still sorting out where to source wolves from as the first draft of its plan goes public, and some say that plan should look to Mexican gray wolves

When voters passed Proposition 114 to require Colorado Parks and Wildlife to return gray wolves to the state, the ballot initiative specified when and where wolves would arrive. But it doesn’t say which kind of wolves to bring back.
Conservation groups and at least one state wildlife commissioner are reiterating that wolf reintroduction is an opportunity not just to return a keystone species to ecosystems in the state, but to aid an endangered animal in dire need: the Mexican gray wolf.

“The Mexican wolf is much more imperiled, so doing a project to reintroduce wolves would benefit the Mexican wolf to a great extent — possibly even save it from extinction,” said James Jay Tutchton, who serves on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission and worked on wildlife cases as a lawyer for WildEarth Guardians, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Defenders of Wildlife for 27 years. He said he has made this point at several commission meetings and with Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists.

The state agency’s first draft of the plan for reintroducing wolves to Colorado will debut Friday at the commission meeting. The plan will not include Mexican gray wolves, and there are a lot of “biological and political and legal” reasons for that, said Eric Odell, the state agency’s biological lead for wolf reintroduction. But wolves released by the December 2023 deadline will be just the first in a multi-year effort, Tutchton points out, and he contends there’s still time to change that approach.

KNAU News Talk - Arizona Public Radio (Original) Posted December 8, 2022 by Associated Press

Environmentalists want the U.S. government to list coyotes as endangered in parts of Arizona and New Mexico where the rarest subspecies of gray wolf in North America is found.

A coalition of groups argue in a petition submitted Thursday to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that small statured Mexican gray wolves are often mistaken for coyotes and that protecting coyotes would in turn cut down on wolf deaths.

Environmentalists say illegal killings are the leading cause of death for the endangered animals.

The petition pointed to cases in which Mexican wolves have been killed by people who said they believed they were killing a coyote. This misidentification invokes a federal policy that effectively protects a person from prosecution because it requires the government to prove that a defendant knew they were killing an endangered species when they pulled the trigger.