Briefs: Arizona ranchers to be paid to remove livestock carcasses
Arizona ranchers will be paid for removing livestock carcasses to prevent endangered Mexican gray wolves from feeding on them. (Photo by Bob Haarmans, cc-by-sa-2.0, https://bit.ly/3c5ocvI)
PHOENIX – The Arizona Livestock Loss Board is implementing a new incentive program that will compensate ranchers for removing livestock carcasses to locations where they aren’t accessible to Mexican wolves. Officials announced Wednesday that the board will pay ranchers $250 for each carcass that is made unavailable to wolves.
The board was formed by the Arizona Legislature in 2015 and one of its charges was to research ways to reduce livestock depredations by Mexican wolves.
One measure that stood out as being effective in other states was removing livestock carcasses from wolf-occupied areas to avoid wolves being drawn to and remaining in the area as they scavenge the carcass.
At a recent Arizona Livestock Loss Board meeting, a rancher from Springerville said carcass removal was effective in managing depredations on her working ranch.
Although ranchers and Arizona Game and Fish Department personnel have been removing carcasses for years, the number has been limited by the cost of removals and the limited time that agency personnel have been able to commit to the program given the high demand in managing the wolves themselves.
The Mexican wolf is the rarest subspecies of gray wolf in North America. According to the most recent survey released in early 2022, there were at least 196 Mexican wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona. It marked the sixth straight year the population had increased.
Thousands in Santa Cruz County lose power
NOGALES – Crews were working to restore electricity Wednesday to thousands of customers in western Santa Cruz County.
Officials with UniSource Energy said an estimated 20,000 customers lost power around 3 a.m.
They said the outage was related to a transmission line and there was no immediate estimate when electricity would be restored.
Schools, businesses, health clinics and government offices were forced to close Wednesday due to the outage south of Madera Canyon that includes Nogales and the towns of Rio Rico, Tubac, Patagonia and others.
The Nogales School District canceled all classes for the day but the Nogales police and fire departments remained open.
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