Wolves and Misinformation About Them Make their way back to California


In contrast, California, a state with both extreme rural and extreme urban areas, has one of the strongest state endangered species in the nation. Killing a wolf is a crime in California.

Where wolves roam, the state’s fish and wildlife agency monitors their whereabouts and collects blood samples, DNA samples, weight statistics, and health information whenever possible to better understand who’s staying, who’s leaving, and where they’ve settled. Some wolves have satellite modems attached to their lanyards. The fish and wildlife departments of California and Oregon regularly talk about individual wolves and share collar data. Occasionally, collarless wolves will show up on trail cameras or via DNA samples in California, typically in Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, and Siskiyou Counties.

Even the wolves did Survive the Dixie wildfire in CaliforniaIt’s the second largest in the state’s history, sweeping its territory last summer and burning nearly a million acres.

But that doesn’t mean everyone is happy that the wolves are back. An important part of Mr. Laudon’s job is to combat the wolves’ bad reputation. It seeks to remove barriers by presenting information in a non-threatening way that allows people to make their own decisions. Sometimes it works.

Dusty de Braga is a contract pastoralist who manages cattle in the 200,000-acre Lassen and Plumas Counties. When he first heard of wolves returning to California, he had assumed they were imported.

“Sounds ridiculous to me,” he said. He changed his mind after seeing data on how far the collared wolves had traveled. “I no longer think this is out of the way of their natural dispersal,” he said, adding that many other people are still convinced that state wildlife officials are bringing them in.

Mr. de Braga have seen the wolves on a semi-regular basis since they arrived. He estimates that between his own herds and those of his two closest neighbors, wolves have killed more than 20 cows and calves in the past five years. Some, but not all, are approved by the Fish and Wildlife Department.



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