ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A volunteer panel of ranchers, environmentalists and county officials from New Mexico and Arizona has unveiled a plan to help ranchers and Mexican gray wolves coexist.
The plan was announced Tuesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It aims to reduce conflicts among wolves and livestock as the federal government tries to reintroduce the predator to its historic range in the Southwest.
The Mexican Wolf/Livestock Coexistence Council says the plan provides the basis for distributing money from a trust fund that was set up to reimburse ranchers for livestock deaths and to pay for measures to scare wolves away from livestock and populated areas.
The simple presence of wolves can also trigger payments based on a formula that considers several factors, including whether a rancher's land overlaps wolf territory.