The Mexican wolf program is on the rocks. In
mid-July, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists captured F511,
the alpha female of the first wolf pack reintroduced in the
Southwest. They planned to remove her radio collar and vaccinate
her four pups (HCN, 7/25/05: Wolf Man John). But according to
Colleen Buchanan, assistant coordinator of the recovery effort,
the wolf overheated during her checkup and later
died. The agency is also proposing a one-year moratorium on
releases and changing its “translocation” policy. If the new rules
are adopted, wolves suspected of killing three head of livestock
will not be relocated in the wild, but will be killed or put in
captivity.
High temperatures and low water levels have
killed 100,000 fish in the Klamath River. Three
summers ago, 68,000 salmon and steelhead died in low, warm water,
where the Klamath meets the Pacific (HCN, 7/19/04: Scientific
Principle: Klamath whistleblower throws in the towel). This time,
the fish kill occurred just below Upper Klamath Lake, and included
fathead minnows, Klamath tui chubs, yellow perch and thousands of
endangered suckers. Such die-offs, due to oxygen-depleting algae
blooms in stagnant water, are typical during irrigation season.
At the recommendation of Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.,
President Bush plans to nominate H. Dale Hall, Region 2
director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as the
new head of the agency (HCN, 6/27/05: Frozen in time: Endangered
species science). Said Interior Secretary Gale Norton of
Hall’s qualifications: “He has worked on everything from the
Northwest Forest Plan to the California/Bay Delta water settlement,
to the plan for restoring the Everglades. He has dealt with
wetlands across the nation and water issues on the Middle Rio
Grande and the Missouri Rivers.” Environmentalists say Hall has
favored politics over the science of his biologists, and oppose his
nomination.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Follow-up.
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