Some 20 students, activists and journalists are expected to take part next week in a five-day camping expedition through the Gila National Forest in search of Mexican gray wolves, the Silver City Sun-News reported.

It's the second year in a row for the UNM Wilderness Alliance-sponsored trek, the Sun-News reported.

Phil Carter, president of the student conservation group, said the event is primarily a way to highlight the University of New Mexico's support for its "Lobo" mascot and to draw attention to how few wolves there are in the wild, the paper said.

"This also celebrates the 10th anniversary of the first wolf released," Carter told the Sun-News. "We really hope to highlight how important the mascot is to UNM students and our desire to see real change in the program so we can see population increases in the wolves."

Carter said a documentary filmmaker will accompany the group for part of the trek, and a number of wildlife activists will lead the students to areas where the wolves are known to roam, the Sun-News reported.

Among the activists on the trek will be Michael Robinson of the Pinos Altos Center for Biological Diversity and a well-known advocate for the wolf reintroduction program.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials told the Sun-News on Thursday that they hadn't heard of next week's expedition, but said they hoped the group would see some wolves -- which didn't happen on last year's trek.

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said only 23 wolves have been documented in New Mexico according to the most recent survey, and some 52 wolves have been documented in the whole recovery area, which stretches across New Mexico and Arizona.

People in Catron County, where the group is likely to visit, aren't too thrilled about the expedition, according to the Sun-News.

"They are going to litter up the forest with their trash," Catron County Manager Bill Aymar told the paper. "What could they possibly do that would have a positive economic impact?"

(You can see an op-ed piece here by group president Phil Carter that appeared in the Albuquerque Journal last October.) 

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