One of Californias newest wolf residents, discovered this year in Lassen County | Photo: CDFW
Five years to the month after OR-7 became the first wild wolf to enter California voluntarily since the 1920s, the states Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has released a long-awaited plan to guide the states management of gray wolves. The Conservation Plan for Gray Wolves in California, published in two sections by CDFW, is intended to provide policy for wildlife managers as they handle potential conflicts between the wolves, humans, and livestock, as well as anticipating any effects the newly arrived predators may have on other species of concern. The plan also covers management of deer, elk, and other game animals to ensure that wolves have ample prey, without reducing what the Department calls hunting opportunities for hunters.
Wolf advocates are calling the plan, which was prompted in the first place by OR-7s visit, an improvement over its first draft. Among other things, the final Plan emphasizes the importance of non-lethal methods to keep livestock losses to wolves to a minimum.
But according to four wildlife advocacy groups that are tracking the wolf issue, the plan falls short in a handful of key areas, including a provision that gray wolves might see their protection downgraded once there are two breeding pairs confirmed in the state for two consecutive years.
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSend EmailMoreCommentPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+
--
--
Because California is only in the early stages of wolf recovery, we need to give these animals a chance to become established in sustainable numbers rather than prematurely rushing to end protections that are vital to their survival, said Amaroq Weiss, West Coast wolf organizer at the Center for Biological Diversity. But we support the plans initial emphasis on restoring wolves to the Golden State and reliance on nonlethal methods to reduce loss of livestock.
More on gray wolves
Gray Wolves in California: A Timeline
New Photos Document OR-7s Wolf Family
Californias Part-Time Wolf, OR-7, May Be a Proud Papa
1 of 3
next
In June 2014, the California Fish and Game Commission listed gray wolves as Endangered under the California Endangered Species Act. The draft plan would have allowed CDFW to consider asking the US Fish and Wildlife Service to downlist wolves to Threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act if two breeding pairs (two adults and at least two pups) were documented in the state for two years. Such a move would clear the way for special rules allowing state wildlife agents to kill wolves in certain circumstances. With the Shasta Packs tenure of more than a year and the likely establishment of a second pack in Lassen County this year, such a threshold could come as early as 2018.
The draft plan also included a proposed threshold for downlisting wolves under the California ESA; when the states wolf population reached 50-75 individuals. The final draft of the plan doesnt include a state delisting threshold. Thats a bit of a reprieve for the wolves over the draft plan, but the idea of petitioning USFWS to downlist at two packs troubles conservationists greatly.
Among other issues with the plan wildlife advocates have noted is an absence of planning extensive corridors of suitable habitat to allow wolves to reestablish a sustainable population with plenty of connectivity.
And the plan does little to address the persistent issue of wolf deaths at the hands of hunters who claim they thought they were shooting at a coyote. Such hunters are generally let off without penalty for violating the federal Endangered Species Act by killing wolves, by way of a Justice Department enforcement loophole known as the McKittrick Policy. Clarifying the states approach to such cases of claimed mistaken identity could help dissuade hunters in wolf country from shooting at animals they cant positively identify. The state could even restrict coyote hunting in wolf areas, especially the widespread coyote killing contests in many parts of the state.
One other deficiency in the final plan hasnt been mentioned in environmentalist reaction to the plan so far, but it did show up in a critique of the draft plan offered jointly by 19 conservation groups: in a decade in which the wolves return was being greeted with jubilation by most Californians, the draft plan seemingly regarded wolves as sabout as welcome as the Zika virus. According to that letter:
The tone of the state's wolf Plan should reflect that the return of wolves heralds a historic moment in conservation history in California and an incredible opportunity to restore a species whose presence and natural hunting practices lead to healthier, more biodiverse ecosystems. Instead, the Draft Wolf Plan's tone regarding wolves is dry and filled with worry and reservations. Its pages contain words like challenge, challenging and concerned.
Nonetheless, wildlife advocates are responding to the release of the final plan with tempered praise.
The ongoing arrival of wolves in California is cause for celebration and makes the state wolf plan's provisions all the more important, stated Kimberly Baker, public land advocate for the Environmental Protection Information Center in Arcata. Wolf recovery will bring the essence of wild back to California and reiterates the need for landscape connectivity.
The plans suggestion that the state offer training and support for non-lethal wolf control methods in ranching country, and possibly even establish a fund to compensate ranchers for livestock lost to wolves, also drew praise.
It's exciting that nonlethal methods of reducing wolf-livestock conflicts are such a foundational element of this plan, because we know they work, said Damon Nagami, a senior attorney in NRDC's Land an
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
One of Californias newest wolf residents, discovered this year in Lassen County | Photo: CDFW 
