Plan finally adopted to safeguard wolf species

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — After decades of legal challenges and political battles, U.S. wildlife managers Wednesday finally adopted a plan to guide the recovery of a wolf that once roamed parts of the American Southwest and northern Mexico.

The plan sets a goal of having an average of 320 Mexican gray wolves in the wild over an eightyear period before the predator can shed its status as an endangered species. In each of the past three years, the population would have to exceed the average to ensure the species