Contact: Marsha Weisiger 505-646-4037 email: mweisige@nmsu.edu

EL LOBO: FORUM FOCUSES ON MEXICAN GRAY WOLF

On February 7-8, 2003, historians, ranchers, and wolf-experts will discuss the history and future of the Mexican gray wolf at a public forum in Las Cruces, New Mexico. "El Lobo" will open on February 7 with a keynote session at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. The session will feature Susan Flader, the historian, biographer of Aldo Leopold, and author of Thinking Like a Mountain; L. David Mech, the country's foremost wolf biologist and author of The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species; and Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association. On February 8, a day-long symposium at the Corbett Center auditorium, New Mexico State University, will include talks and a round-table discussion with leading environmental historians, ranchers, biologists, policy-makers, and environmental activists on both sides of the issue. Hank Fischer, Special Projects Coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, will be the featured speaker at dinner. The event will be free and open to the public, although there is a charge for lunch and dinner. Seating will be limited, and advanced registration is required by January 24, 2003. For registration information, contact Vanessa Stewart at wolfconf@nmsu.edu  or visit the conference website at www.nmsu.edu/~histdept/wolf.html . The Department of History at New Mexico State University has organized the forum, which is co-sponsored by the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum and the NMSU College of Agriculture.

The forum will address the history of wolf eradication, the historical role of large predators in the southwestern ecosystem, and the current battle over wolf reintroduction. In addition to the keynote and dinner speakers, participants include ranchers Hugh McKeen, Laura Schneberger, Darcy Ely, Jan and Will Holder, and Jim Winder; historians Thomas Dunlap, Dan Flores, Louis Warren, and Diana Hadley; Craig Miller of the Defenders of Wildlife; Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity; ecologists Michael Phillips and David E. Brown; Brian Kelley of the Fish and Wildlife Service; and a number of other policy-makers and scientists, including representatives from the Apache reservations.

El Lobo is the first Leopold Forum focusing on environmental history and policy in the Southwest borderlands. The series is name in honor of conservationist Aldo Leopold, whose career began in New Mexico. The forum is funded by grants from the Environmental Leadership Program, the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities, the Thaw Charitable Trust, the McCune Charitable Foundation, the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, and the Southwest and Border Cultures Institute at NMSU.

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