I was dismayed to read HCN’s
profile of John Morgart, the man at least partially responsible for
crafting the proposed one-year moratorium on Mexican gray wolf
releases in the Blue Range, and other changes to the reintroduction
standard operating procedures — because it did not mention
the dubious circumstances leading up to the release of these
proposals (HCN, 7/25/05: Wolf man John).
According to the
Mexican Wolf Adaptive Management Oversight Committee’s own
documentation, the February proposal was developed, at least in
part, as a response to a private meeting with “constituents” of
Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M.
The document states that “the
general message conveyed by meeting participants was that they
strongly opposed the Mexican wolf reintroduction program. From
their perspective, the program has been a failure, locals have not
been fairly compensated for their losses, and the wolf program is
not properly receptive of their concerns or truthful with the
public.”
It appears that your portrait of a
“collaboratively crafted” policy may not be particularly accurate,
and that the last and most powerful voice in Mr. Morgart’s
ear may have had more influence than the other stakeholders.
Joe Durnell
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Overhauled wolf program isn’t ‘collaborative’.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
