SAFFORD — On Monday, U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., heard about the big two Ws from ranchers, farmers and outdoorsmen — water and wolves.
Ciscomani was at the Gila Valley Irrigation District offices in Safford on Monday, meeting with the Graham and Greenlee Cattle Growers, Cochise Cattle Growers, Southeastern Arizona Sportsmen Club and Arizona Farm Bureau about their concerns over the Mexican gray wolf.
“I walked in thinking that I knew quite a bit about the issue, and I did know what had happened, but it’s worse than we thought it has been. It’s getting worse, and that’s the thing,” Ciscomani said.
Ranchers discussed the increasing target population of the wolves, their spread, and the penalties for protecting their cattle from the wolves.
There’s also the issue of other predators now attacking cattle because the other predators are competing with wolves for prey in the wild. And when cattle are killed by a mountain lion or other predator, there is no compensation for the loss.
Ciscomani co-sponsored a bill to provide emergency relief to cattle growers suffering a loss from the Mexican gray wolf, but that’s just one step Washington, D.C., can take, Ciscomani said, adding he will push to get the right people in place to make decisions rather than bog things down in red tape.
“We can fix the percentage of the compensation, but if we don’t add investigators or make the federal government more accountable in how quickly these investigations are happening or the personnel they have to make this happen, then the process will be incomplete,” Ciscomani said.
The other issue he heard about is the ongoing fight with the San Carlos Apache Tribe over the Gila River, which, he acknowledged, there isn’t great deal that he can do about, since it is not a federal issue.
“Some of these issues are state, (while) some can be at least leveraged on the federal side as well,” Ciscomani said.
He also acknowledged that the San Carlos Apache Tribe is not in his district — it resides in CD-2 — but by being Arizona’s only representative on the House Appropriations Committee, he can have an impact on the ongoing negotiations.
Following his round table at the Irrigation District offices, Ciscomani delivered an update on what’s happening in Washington, D.C., at Eastern Arizona College.
