"Having to go through a whole lot of environmental regulatory processes is really a big challenge, and one that we didn't expect,"she said.
"[It's] been gruelling,"Mulloon Institute chief executive Carolyn Hall said.
"It needs to be ramped up, and there needs to be other markets in there to help drive these huge initiatives,"she said.
"This is just what the scientists that were monitoring the population had warned about: that we were potentially watching a local extinction event if we didn't take action."