SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Wednesday announced the advancement of the state of California's management of the gray wolf and further supporting communities where they are known to reside.
The CDFW says that at the end of 2024, there were seven known packs of gray wolves that reside in the state of California, with four additional areas of known wolf activity. Most of the packs are located in the northeastern part of California, with one pack residing in the southern Sierra Nevada.
Officials say that five of the seven packs meet the CDFW's definition of a breeding pair in 2024, which means that two adult wolves and two or more pups survived until the end of the year.
The CDFW says because they have documented at least four breeding pairs for two consecutive years, California is now in Phase II of the wolf management program, as specified in the 2016 Conservation Plan for Gray Wolves in California.
Officials say the 2016 plan was an important milestone for both the CDFW and the state of California. Over the span of one and a half years and with more than 40 meetings that were conducted, the CDFW convened and collaborated with multiple agencies, organizations, and local governments to develop the plan.
For Phase II, as outlined in the conservation plan, the CDFW plans to take the following set of actions:
- Initiate a review to evaluate the status of the gray wolf in the state of California - this will include an opportunity for both tribal and public input along with independent peer review.
- Evaluate legal pathways under the California Endangered Species Act and the Federal Endangered Species Act to potentially issue permits allowing for more aggressive forms of hazing in specific situations - also known as less than lethal harassment, examples of this include the use of tools and techniques such as firearms discharging non-lethal ammunition or the use of motorized equipment to follow or pursue a wolf to modify wolf activity or presence near livestock.
In addition, some of the actions planned by the CDFW that will take place in the coming weeks and months include:
- Release an online tool to provide location information for GPS-collared wolves - this tool will greatly facilitate the CDFW's efforts, as guided by the Conservation Plan, to provide timely information regarding wolf activity in the vicinity of livestock production
- Release of the CDFW's first annual report detailing the wolf conservation and management activities and summarizing information on California's wolves - this initial report will summarize information on wolves in the state of California between 2015 and 2024.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says that they are already taking action to monitor and track gray wolves, investigate livestock depredation, and support reduced human-wildlife conflicts with gray wolves.
These actions include:
- Continuing to accept applications and issuing compensation payments to livestock producers who have had a confirmed killed or injured livestock, or probable killed or injured livestock, by wolves through the Wolf Livestock Compensation Program.
- Continuing to monitor the status of individual wolf packs, investigate areas of known or suspected wolf activity to search for new packs, and GPS-collar wolves in those packs without collared wolves.
- Continuing to reach out and to engage with the public.
- Continuing research collaborations, such as the California Wolf Project (CAWP), to address key scientific questions about California's wolves, including their diet, habitat use, relationships with other wildlife, and patterns of livestock conflict.
- Continuing to investigate livestock depredations.
- CDFW's Law Enforcement Division (LED) will continue to investigate and evaluate any reports of of undesired or abnormal wolf behavior that may represent threats to public safety.
The Law Enforcement Division of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, alongside wildlife biologists, dedicates numerous staff hours and resources to supporting wolf conservation.
Officials say that wildlife officers have the jurisdiction to investigate the death of any California wolves; they take these investigation seriously and pursue every lead to determine the cause of death and if a crime has occurred.
In the past five years, the CDFW says that their wildlife officers have conducted eight different investigations into gray wolf deaths, as well as spent nearly 1,000 staff hours in the forensics lab processing 1,693 samples.
