Federals Estimate $3 Million
Cost For Seven Mexican Wolves

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Federal officials estimate the cost to taxpayers so far for the Mexican wolf reintroduction program at $3 million. Considering the fact that no more than seven such wolves remain at large, that is about $428,570 per head.

Most of the money has gone to salaries, to building wolf pens at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico and the wolf release areas, to preparing environmental documents and to conducting and advertising public meetings about the project.

The figure does not include the cost for captive breeding of the wolves because zoos and wildlife sanctuaries — some of which are also supported by local, state or federal tax money — housed, cared for and bred the wolves.

The cost has been spread over about two decades, since the Mexican gray wolf was listed as an endangered species in 1976, and is expected to increase to about $9.8 million by 2011, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Ranchers have argued that by moving the endangered wolves back into the mountains near the New Mexico-Arizona state line, Fish and Wildlife was squandering vast amounts of taxpayer money — even more than it admits.

"Frankly, I'm surprised at those figures. I just can't imagine everything they've spent is included," said Erik Ness, a spokesman for the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau in Las Cruces.

But even the admitted figure is too much, they contend.

"Even if we take them at their word, that's an incredible amount of money to spend on a program that appears to be failing," Ness said.

Eco-activists, on the other hand, portray the program as a raging success, and for them, the cosat in taxpayer money — along with private property, like livestock — is no object.

"It's a drop in the bucket," scoffs John Horning of the Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians, an anti-timber, anti-grazing group. "The American public overwhelmingly supports every nickel of Mexican wolf recovery."

The goal of the recovery program is to build a self-sustaining population of about 100 wolves.

Eleven wolves were released this spring along the New Mexico-Arizona border in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.

Although two of the released wolves have been killed — one was shot by a camper in self-defense and another apparently killed by a mountain lion — and three more were taken back into captivity, the wolf population is so far doing better than the Fish and Wildlife Service had projected.

And as a bonus, one pup is believed to be surviving, according to David Parsons, the leader of the Mexican wolf recovery effort.

He said wolf reintroduction would have been even less expensive if the animal was not so extremely rare.

"It's pretty much a given that the closer a species is allowed to get to extinction, the more expensive it is to recover," Parsons said. "I don't think the money's been wasted, let's put it that way."

At least it’s paid his salary.