ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Future management of the federal government's troubled effort to return Mexican gray wolves to the Southwest will be the focus of a public hearing Wednesday in Albuquerque. Environmentalists, landowners and others are expected to pack the meeting. They'll be commenting on a pair of proposals that will determine how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moves forward with the program.
One proposal calls for listing Mexican wolves as an endangered subspecies and delisting gray wolves elsewhere. The other proposal would revise a rule that classifies Mexican wolves as an experimental population.
Wolf supporters say wildlife managers haven't done enough to help the wolves repopulate parts of Arizona and New Mexico. But ranchers oppose any plans that would expand the program and where the wolves could be released.
