Adult gray wolf in Lassen National Forest on Wednesday, July 18, 2018. Biologists and environmental groups have been celebrating the slow and steady return of wolves, with the number of wolves in California having increased steadily in recent years. (Photo by T. Rickman, USFS)
Adult gray wolf in Lassen National Forest on Wednesday, July 18, 2018. Biologists and environmental groups have been celebrating the slow and steady return of wolves, with the number of wolves in California having increased steadily in recent years. (Photo by T. Rickman, USFS)
In the latest sign that wolves are continuing to make a comeback across California after being hunted out of existence for nearly a century, state wildlife officials have announced that population numbers have increased enough that they plan to relax rules that have set strict protections on the high-profile species.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife said Thursday that the changes, when finalized, will allow ranchers and other rural property owners to obtain permits to use more aggressive methods to chase gray wolves away from livestock — including firing rubber bullets or bean bags to scare them away, and using ATVs, motorcycles or other equipment to chase them from herds of cattle or sheep.
The department also said it plans in the next few months to release an online tool where rural property owners can see the general location of wolves that have been fitted with tracking collars to take better steps to protect their livestock, like posting range riders on horseback.
The new rules won’t allow wolves to be shot or hunted however, since they are still listed in California under the state and federal endangered species acts.
But the changes are seen as an important milestone that show California’s wolf population is no longer made up of a few individuals wandering in from Oregon. Instead, dozens of wolves are now roaming the state, breeding locally and steadily increasing in number.
Environmental groups are celebrating the return, although Thursday were somewhat wary of the shift in policy, which was spelled out in a 2016 state wolf conservation plan, because population estimates are not exact and can vary.
“On the one hand it is a good thing,” said Amaroq Weiss, a senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit environmental group. “It shows there is population growth and wolves are successfully breeding. That’s fabulous. On the other hand, we’d like to see more data.”
Farmers and ranchers say the animals are killing livestock and harming their livelihoods. In recent weeks sheriffs and county supervisors in Modoc, Lassen and Sierra counties have asked state wildlife officials to give them authority to kill or remove problem wolves.
“I know a rancher in Siskiyou County who has lost 12 livestock to one pack,” said Kirk Wilbur, vice president of the California Cattlemen’s Association. “We’re not anti-wolf. We are pro-livestock and want to be able to protect them. If wolves are not chronically killing livestock, leave them alone. But where they are devastating herds, we would like some management discretion.”
Wolves roamed California for thousands of years, like grizzly bears and mountain lions. But their interactions with ranchers, and fears of rural residents, caused them to be wiped out a century ago. The last wild wolf in California was shot in 1924 in Lassen County.
The population has grown from about 7 in 2019 to between 50 and 70 today, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Wolves are now found in nine of California’s 58 counties, in seven packs from the Oregon border to the mountains around Lake Tahoe, and in the Southern Sierra near Bakersfield. State biologists estimate that California north of Interstate 80 could support between 371 and 497 wolves, based on populations around the Rocky Mountains and Great Lakes.
In 2021, one famously wandered across the state, his radio collar showing a 1,000-mile journey through San Benito, Monterey, San Luis Obispo and other counties before he was killed by a car near Interstate 5 in Kern County. If California follows the patterns of Washington and Oregon, there could be 100 or more wolves in the state in the next few years, biologists estimate.
In other Western states with larger wolf populations, the issue has sparked fierce political battles and lawsuits.
In Wyoming, state laws allow property owners to shoot wolves on sight. They are hunted in Idaho and Montana, with hundreds killed every year. In Oregon and Washington, there are more protections, but wolves can be shot if they are attacking livestock.
California has the most far-reaching laws.
Wolves are protected under the state and federal endangered species acts in California. They can only be killed if they are threatening a human. Unlike with mountain lions, black bears or bobcats, property owners cannot get a depredation permit from the state to kill them to protect livestock.
The first wolf returned to the state after an 87-year absence in 2011, when a young male walked across the border from Oregon. By 2015, the first new wolf pack had re-established, in Siskiyou County.
A management plan published in 2016 by the state fish and wildlife department doesn’t set a limit for when wolf protections could be relaxed as their numbers increase. It does say that after there are four breeding pairs that produce healthy pups for two years in a row, the rules could change, and after 8 breeding pairs, they could be further relaxed.
That first threshold has been reached, according to state Fish and Wildlife officials, who note that there are now 5 breeding pairs. As part of this week’s updates, the department also said it plans to begin a “status review” that could eventually lead to the animal being removed from the state endangered species list.
“Ranchers feel their hands are tied,” Wilbur said.
Environmentalists note the state pays ranchers for animals killed by wolves, and note that there have been no documented cases of a wolf killing a person in the lower 48 states in more than a century.
“We share the landscape with other species,” Weiss said. “They have a right to be here. They have families. They take care of each other. They mourn each other. Our own dogs evolved from them. I don’t understand all of the animosity.”
Originally Published: April 3, 2025 at 3:37 PM PDT
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