Conservation groups have organized a forum to discuss furbearer trapping in New Mexico and a recent decision by state officials to end a trapping ban in the Mexican gray wolf recovery area.

WildEarth Guardians, Animal Protection of New Mexico and the Sierra Club outlined their concerns about trapping on public lands in a letter sent earlier this summer to the state Game Commission and the Game and Fish Department.

The groups say they’re holding the forum because the state ignored their appeal and the public was “shut out” of the commission’s recent decision over trapping in southwestern New Mexico.

The forum will be held this evening in Albuquerque.

The panelists include former state Rep. Nathan Cote, former Game Commissioner Oscar Simpson, Santa Fe County Commissioner Kathy Holian and others.

This announcement appeared in the Albuquerque Journal

For more information please visit the People’s Forum Panel on Public Lands Trapping website