In another blow for Mexican gray wolf recovery, the New Mexico Game Commission, under Governor Susana Martinez, voted unanimously today to DENY the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) permission to release wolves in the Gila National Forest. New Mexico Game and Fish withdrew its support for the Mexican wolf program in 2011. Now, the Commission and Department are refusing to allow any Mexican gray wolves to be released from captivity into the wild.

The state’s Game Commission and it’s agenda is clearly out of step with the majority of New Mexico voters who support wolf recovery and is pushing the critically endangered lobo even closer to extinction.

Do you think it’s time for USFWS to exercise its federal authority to ensure the recovery of endangered Mexican gray wolves? What say you?

Read more via Center for Biological Diversity.

The Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) or “lobo” is the most genetically distinct lineage of wolves in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most endangered mammals in North America. By the mid-1980s, hunting, trapping, and poisoning caused the extinction of lobos in the wild, with only a handful remaining in captivity. In 1998 the wolves were reintroduced into the wild as part of a federal reintroduction program under the Endangered Species Act. Today in the U.S., there is a single wild population comprising only 109 individuals.