Paul Weiland, Nossaman Environment and Land Use Chair, Quoted in Albuquerque Journal

Nossaman Partner and Chair of its Environment and Land Use Practice Group, Paul Weiland, was quoted in the Albuquerque Journal story Feds, State Debate Need for Permit To Release Wolves.  Mr. Weiland is representing the state of New Mexico’s Game and Fish Department in its effort to halt temporarily the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s planned release of several Mexican wolves within New Mexico in violation of state law.  His remarks before U.S. District Court Judge William P. Johnson (who is presiding over the case) were noted in the story.  Regarding the case, Mr. Weiland stated that the primary reason for a denial of the state permit [to release the wolves] was the lack of a comprehensive management scheme because the federal plan adopted in 1982 is no longer in place.  New Mexico’s Game and Fish Department is requesting a preliminary injunction based on its position that management of wildlife and fish is a state function, and that New Mexico law bans importation of a nondomestic animal without a permit.  It is their position that immediate and irreparable harm  will befall the states without a court-ordered halt to more wolf releases, because as top-of-the-food-chain predators, wolves must be managed along with their prey – elk, deer and antelope.