Game and Fish panel reaffirms commitment to wild wolves in Arizona The Arizona Game and Fish Commission voted to continue supporting the state's role in managing the Mexican wolf-recovery program, which has cost some $18 million since its inception 26 years ago. "We absolutely appreciate how expensive this program is," Terry Johnson, the Game and Fish Department's endangered species coordinator, told the commission in a presentation covering the history of the wolf reintroduction and recovery program. Arizona has borne some $4.6 million of that cost - about half of the state's share coming from federal funds. New Mexico, a partner in the wolf-recovery effort, has paid a tenth of that toward wolf recovery - some $540,000. Reintroducing a predator that was wiped out in Arizona has long been a matter of working with people as much as wolves. Environmental groups and ranchers have often clashed over the program's management. The wolf's recovery area is largely in public lands open to grazing. The program is run under the umbrella of the Active Management Oversight Committee, which includes Arizona, New Mexico, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, the U.S. Wildlife Services and the White Mountain Apache Tribe....