New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham fired state wildlife commissioner Sabrina Pack Wednesday for Pack’s alleged conflict of interest around Mexican wolves and wolf management, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Grisham’s decision came just one day after a public records request was published, revealing that Peck had been privately communicating with the head of a cattlegrower’s association and a county commissioner regarding a strategic marketing plan around Mexican wolves.
Grisham’s spokesperson told the Journal that the decision to remove Pack from her seat was due to Pack’s “failure to disclose her conflict of interest as well as her failure to recuse herself from pertinent votes.” In New Mexico, the governor has the power to appoint and remove members of the Game Commission at will. And while the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish doesn’t directly manage or set policy for Mexican wolves, it is an advisory member of the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team, a collaborative group that monitors lobo populations and works to limit interactions between wolves and livestock.
Pack, who was appointed by Grisham in March 2024, is described on the New Mexico Game & Fish website as a “lifelong resident of Grant County, with ties to ranching in the area and a passion for the outdoors as wildlife.” She is also “a marketing professional,” according to the website, who “serves as the Chief Operating Officer at SkyWest Media.”
The public records request released Tuesday, which was filed by the Western Watersheds Project, contained a series of emails between Pack, president-elect of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association Tom Paterson, and Catron County Commissioner Audrey McQueen.
Those emails showed that Pack, in her role at SkyWest, was working on and revising a marketing plan with Paterson and McQueen that was aimed at shifting public sentiment and conversations around wolf management in New Mexico. This included a coordinated media campaign that was meant to “elevate the voices of rural New Mexicans and others living with the consequences of federal wolf management, shifting public awareness and driving more balanced policy conversations across state and national audiences,” according to one email that included an executive summary of the strategic marketing plan, Wolves Among Us.
Pack told the Albuquerque Journal that she did nothing wrong. She said all commissioners have jobs or other occupations outside their government roles, and that no votes were taken on wolf management during her time on the Game Commission. The Journal also reports that Rainy Day Media, and not SkyWest Media, was ultimately chosen as the lead agency to implement the Wolves Among Us campaign.
In the accusatory article it published Wednesday, the Western Watersheds Project said it was unclear if Pack’s private business dealings during her time on the Commission violated state law.
“But the optics are deeply troubling,” the environmental group wrote. “Working with groups that have a vested interest in limiting wolf numbers undermines public confidence in the Commission’s impartiality. And it raises reasonable questions about whether she can fulfill her duty to make science-based decisions on wolf policy.”
The New Mexico Cattlegrowers Association has long pushed for policy changes around wolf management. It is one of several groups in New Mexico that supports legislation to delist Mexican wolves and give management control of the species back to the states.
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Catron County Commissioner Audrey McQueen, a livestock producer and hunting outfitter, is an outspoken rancher who has likewise pushed for increased management of wolves at the state level. McQueen has claimed that depredations on livestock and pets by wolves in her county have become a public safety concern. In April, she led an effort by the Catron County Commission to declare a state of emergency around Mexican wolves.
In an interview with Outdoor Life just before that emergency declaration, McQueen said the current situation with lobos in her part of the state “is not tolerable.” She brought up several examples of recent wolf conflicts, including the loss of her daughter’s favorite horse to a pack of wolves.
“If they would just allow us to manage [the wolves],” she said. “We could live with them.”
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The Western Watersheds Project, meanwhile, is an environmental non-profit with a known anti-grazing bent. The group has engaged in several lawsuits related to livestock grazing on western public lands, and it says on its mission page that the primary focus of its advocacy work “is on the negative impacts of livestock grazing.”
Pack’s firing should not affect the upcoming Game Commission meeting, although a quorum of at least four members would be required to take any official actions under the New Mexico Open Meetings Act. That Commission meeting is scheduled for Friday in Reserve, and a discussion around wolf management is on the agenda.
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