ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Thirty-six conservation groups representing millions of members and supporters from across the United States today sent a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requesting the immediate release of Mexican gray wolf Asha, her mate and their five puppies. The wolf family was slated to be released on the Ladder Ranch in late June but their release has been delayed without explanation.

The Caldera pack consists of a female, who was named Asha in an online youth wolf-naming contest, her mate Arcadia and their five pups, Kachina, Aspen, Sage, Kai and Aala. Asha was born in the wild and became an icon in 2023 after she twice crossed the Service’s arbitrary northern boundary for Mexican wolf movements marked by Interstate 40. She has been captured once before and released. She was captured again after her second infraction and the Service paired her with the captive-born Arcadia, publicly stating they would be released after pups were born.

The release was scheduled for June 23 but postponed supposedly because of logistics. However, the livestock industry has been lobbying to halt wolf releases. The conservation groups are worried that the release is being stalled for political reasons.

“Delaying the release risks missing the critical window when Asha could teach her pups how to hunt native elk calves and give the pack the opportunity to localize on these private lands,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. “The planned release was well-timed for optimum success, but better late than never. The government should move as quickly as possible to get these wolves on the ground this week.”

“It’s hard for me to think of any scientific reason why Asha and her genetically vital family haven’t been released yet, and I fear that’s because indefinitely delaying their release was a political decision,” said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Asha and her family deserve their freedom, their fellow Mexican wolves in the wild deserve their lifesaving genes and the American people deserve agencies that follow the science and the law, not the livestock industry’s lobbyists.”

“Asha and her young family represent incredible promise for Mexican wolf recovery and Asha’s story has captured the nation — she deserves to be free,” said Chris Smith, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians. “The fact that she has been held captive for so long is wrong. She needs to be released now.”

“Asha’s release is much more than a promise made — it’s a critical piece of Mexican gray wolf restoration grounded in decades of science, responsibility and real community investment,” said Craig Miller, senior Southwest representative at Defenders of Wildlife. “Her new family represents years of genetic planning, public engagement and the hard-won lessons of coexistence. Delaying or denying Asha’s and their release risks undermining the very recovery efforts the public, conservationists and agencies have worked so hard to achieve.”

“That Asha, who wandered so far and so freely, should languish in captivity indefinitely, possibly for the rest of her life, is unbearable,” said Mary Katherine Ray, wildlife chair for the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club. “We are calling on the Fish and Wildlife Service to keep its promise to free her and her family for the future of wolf genetic diversity, for the intent of the law and for the decency that Asha deserves.”

“Asha’s story reminds us what’s at stake: not just a wolf, but a wild future. She dared to cross an invisible line on a map, and now she and her pups are paying the price," said Claire Musser, executive director at Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. "This delay isn’t just a missed opportunity, it’s a betrayal of public trust and of Asha’s own wild instincts. If we are to restore wolves in a way that honors their agency and intelligence, we must act now and let this family live freely, as they were born to do.”

“Every wolf deserves to be wild,” said Regan Downey, director of education and advocacy at the Wolf Conservation Center. “The release of the Caldera pack would signify a commitment to creating a world where Mexican gray wolves truly thrive. Let Asha continue to be a leader for her endangered species.”

Asha’s pups would materially improve the genetic health of the wild population, which becomes harder to diversify the larger the population grows on the landscape. That’s because the larger population anticipated in the future would require proportionately more releases to gain the same percentage of genes underrepresented in the wild which are available among captive wolves.

“The livelihood and wellbeing of the Caldera pack should be at the forefront of the need to release these wolves onto the landscape,” said Nico Lorenzen of Wild Arizona. “These wolves also represent a great opportunity to increase the genetic diversity, and therefore the long-term health, of the Mexican gray wolf population. The longer it takes to introduce underrepresented genes from the captive population into the wild, the more difficult, costly and risky it will become, especially with an increasing wolf population. Releasing Asha, Arcadia and their pups promptly would indicate that the managing agencies take their commitment to saving these wolves, restoring our landscapes and using the best scientific principles for the public good seriously.”

“With the Caldera pack release now apparently on hold and certainly delayed, we are troubled that wolf recovery may be being stymied for political reasons,” said Erin Hunt, managing director of Lobos of the Southwest. “Implementation of the Endangered Species Act is required by the statute to be based exclusively on the best science, not political influence.”