After many years of participation in the grant opportunities provided through USFWS, nmda finds a need to increase collaboration, coordination, and outreach to better understand program outcomes

This Project Grant award of $380,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) under the Endangered Species Conservation-Wolf Livestock Loss Compensation and Prevention program (CFDA 15.666) will support the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA) in increasing collaboration, coordination, and outreach to better understand program outcomes related to the Mexican wolf reintroduction.

The grant funding will be used for two main purposes: 1) Providing prevention funding to assist livestock producers in undertaking proactive, non-lethal activities to reduce the risk of livestock loss due to wolf predation, and 2) Providing compensation funding to reimburse livestock producers for confirmed livestock losses due to wolf predation. The goal is to increase communication, coordination, and collaboration among the various stakeholders impacted by the Mexican wolf reintroduction program to achieve USFWS's desired goals for increasing viable wolf populations while also supporting livestock producers directly affected by wolf presence.

This will allow nmda to assist livestock producers as USFWS meets its goals to increase the mexican wolf population. Nmda is applying for both grants (prevention and compensation) under this application. Prevention funds will provide funding to assist livestock producers in undertaking proactive, nonlethal activities to reduce the risk of livestock loss due to predation by wolves. Compensation funds will be used to provide funding to reimburse livestock producers for their livestock losses due to predation. Nmda, along with other collaborators and stakeholders, understand that implementation of the endangered species act, especially with respect to the mexican wolf reintroduction program, will continue torequire greater levels of coordination and collaboration to achieve USFWS desired goals for increasing viable wolf populations. The desired outcome from the successful application for the grant funding for prevention and compensation are to increase communication, coordination, and collaboration among the various parties for whom coexistence with the mexican wolf is a fact of life, and this requires active participation for the program to be successful. In addition, the grant funds are meant to provide support and compensation to livestock producers who are directly impacted by wolves.