Posted on 05/13/2006 6:24:39 PM PDT by Daralundy
So far, it's been a heartwarming story about binational cooperation, cuddly kittens and the rebirth of a species extinct in the southwestern United States.
About 200 lynx from B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Yukon -- trapped and transported to Colorado since 1999 in one of the most successful wildlife reintroduction programs in U.S. history -- have thrived so well that U.S. biologists, environmentalists and politicians have seized upon the project as a symbolic triumph for nature.
But the Canadian cats are proving to have poor knowledge of U.S. geography. And their wanderings into Utah, Wyoming, Kansas and, most unfortunately, New Mexico -- where the tuft-eared rabbit eaters can be shot on sight and state officials are resisting protection efforts -- have landed the lovable lynx in U.S. federal court.
A coalition of six wildlife groups has sued the New Mexico branch of the U.S. Forest Service over its refusal to consider the lynx -- oblivious to the Colorado-New Mexico border that runs through their Southern Rockies range -- in its wilderness conservation strategy.
At an appeal hearing this week in Denver, a lawyer for the environmentalists argued that the agency's stand means the lynx will be "hunted, shot, killed as soon as they cross an invisible line" to New Mexico.
"It's ludicrous to go to the trouble of transplanting lynx from Canada, and then fitting them with radio collars to track them in Colorado, just so they can be shot and killed if they wander 20 miles away from where they were released," Matt Bishop, a lawyer with the Taos, N.M.-based Western Environmental Law Center, said Friday.
But unlike Colorado, where lynx were known to exist before hunting and habitat loss led to the last sighting in 1973, New Mexico doesn't acknowledge the cat as a native species.
A lawyer for the forest service argued in court on Wednesday that "the fact that the lynx is not listed in New Mexico is sufficient to dismiss" the coalition's push for protections.
Judge Michael Murphy, one of three federal justices hearing the case, acknowledged the challenge the panel faces: "I'm trying to put myself in the paws of the lynx," he said in court. "I must know I must not cross that line or I'm dead."
The outcome depends on how the judges interpret a complex layering of laws that govern several state and federal conservation agencies. The case also hinges on a disputed question of natural history: Did lynx ever inhabit New Mexico before the Canadian immigrant arrived?
State officials say no. But the coalition cites a study by New Mexico State University biologist Jennifer Frey, published in the academic journal Biological Conservation this year, that concludes that "the mountains of north-central New Mexico should be considered within the natural range" of lynx.
Bishop says six dead lynx have been reported in New Mexico and at least two dozen are now believed to be living or hunting in the state.
Lynx populations are relatively healthy in Canada. But only about 1,000 are believed to be living in the lower 48 states, mostly in northern areas close to the Canadian border.
Colorado's push to repopulate the state with Canadian lynx began in 1999. Many early transplants died from starvation or were struck by cars, but changes to timing and location of releases and better pre-release feeding improved results.
Colorado officials have heaped praise on Canadian wildlife agencies for supporting the program.
And "the Canadians have been very proud of the part they've played in our reintroduction," Scott Wait, a biologist with the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
As long as they are not a human predator, they should be allowed to roam the USFS lands in NM.
Cute furry immigrants should be immediately be made citizens.
Are they endangering any species native to NM? I would Imagine that NM already has many Bobcats.
Anyone besides biologists knows that lynx migrate alot. They'll go 2-3 hundred miles quick regardless of snowshoe population.
Canada ping.
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.
"I wonder why they didn't get them from alaska? Lynx are plentiful up here."
Yeah, but Canadian Lynx are cuter, b'cuz their bilingual!!
=)
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