"A Decade on, Southwest Wolf Reintroduction Effort Faces Long Odds"

"SEVILLETA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, N.M. -- With their high fences, den boxes and plastic water tubs, the half-dozen pens of this FWS holding facility are a far cry from the remote, rugged wildlands of the recovery zone that M1133 and other Mexican wolves are supposed to inhabit about 300 miles southwest of here on the New Mexico-Arizona border. But this facility has become an essential, if controversial, part of FWS's 12-year-old Mexican wolf reintroduction program, one of the most troubled -- and by many estimates, unsuccessful -- endangered species programs in the country.

When M1133 is released into the wild, he will join 42 other Mexican wolves, or los lobos, roaming the Gila and Apache national forests not far from the Mexican border. That is about half the number FWS had hoped to see by now when the agency released the first 11 wolves into the area, and the lowest number since 2002."

April Reese reports for Greenwire March 11, 2010.