Gray Ranch

Not only has Tom Wolf presented a distorted view of the Nature Conservancy’s work at Gray Ranch (“Why We Can’t Buy Our Way Out of Environmental Dilemmas,” Opinion, July 21), but he has also made a baseless and malicious attack on a staff member. We would like to respond.

Had Wolf, a disaffected ex-employee, checked the facts he would have learned that Laurel Mayer, one of our best attorneys and most respected senior managers, is vice president and western director of protection for the Conservancy’s national real estate program and is still concentrating her efforts on the Gray Ranch and other large protection efforts.

Wolf questions the Conservancy’s motivation in buying the Gray Ranch, arguing that there are no federally endangered species of animal life “worth preserving.” The preserve is home to nearly 100 plants and animals that are listed by federal and state governments as being imperiled and in need of protection. We believe that every one of them is worth saving.

The Conservancy moved swiftly to buy the ranch because we feared a profit-oriented purchaser would irreversibly alter the landscape by intensifying economic use, destroying one of the last intact ecosystems in the Southwest.

Wolf’s call for the Conservancy to bring back bison, grizzlies and wolves to the ranch is also off base. Bison never lived there, the Mexican grizzly is extinct and the ranch is too small to support a population of Mexican gray wolves.

Finally, Wolf questions the continuation of cattle ranching on the preserve, when, in actuality, the ranch’s unique ecosystems have coexisted with continuous, yet controlled, grazing for more than 100 years.

In sum, we’re proud of our work at Gray Ranch (in New Mexico) and invite anyone to scrutinize our efforts there.

JOHN C. SAWHILL

President and CEO

The Nature Conservancy

Arlington, Va.