Amendment No. 342: None of the funds made available by this Act may be used for the continued operation of the Mexican Wolf recovery program.

Despite the fact that 69% of New Mexicans support the reintroduction of Mexican wolves after five decades of extinction in the wild, Mexican wolves remain in peril of a second extermination from the Southwest. 

At only 50 lobos in the wild, the Mexican gray wolf is the most endangered wolf and mammalian species in North America. However, this hasn%u2019t stopped an onslaught on them and their also-imperiled Northern cousins from both houses of Congress. Two mirror bills (S.249 & H.R.509) are now advancing through the Senate and House with the same intent: to remove Endangered Species Act protections from all gray wolves in the United States. 

What will happen if federal protections and funds are removed from wolf management in New Mexico? All new wolf releases will cease and management of lobos will revert to state wildlife authorities, who, unlike federal biologists, are not bound by %u201Cbest available science%u201D requirements. Simply put, this will spell doom for the vital reintroduction of wolves in Southwest.