Return of the Pack
For the first time in nearly 100 years, endangered gray wolves are calling California home.
Last Thursday, I was driving back to Los Angeles from the Bay Area when I heard the news: cameras captured images of five gray wolf pups and two adults in California. I was so excited that I had to pull off the road to call friends and colleagues. As I continued my drive past countless suburbs and strip malls, I felt proud that this state could once again support something as wild and majestic as gray wolves.
Many of us have been working toward this moment for years.
We were first teased by this possibility in 2011, when a lone wolf known as OR-7 dropped down from Oregon, but he was a wanderer who ultimately decided to settle back home. Tracking his movements has been fascinating — but having a pack show up in our state is a game-changer.
This family, named the Shasta Pack, means greater permanence. They will also roam but not as far as a single wolf would. Instead, they are establishing a home base in Siskiyou County in the northeastern corner of the state, and they will likely live and hunt in the region.
Gray wolves are native to California, and their return could help revitalize wild landscapes. Research shows that wolves help regulate the balance between predator and prey, and this can contribute to fewer coyotes, more raptors, more songbirds, better trout habitat, wilder elk, better soil, more aspen trees, and other benefits. Wolves are essential to a healthy ecosystem.
These animals also nurture something in humans. People have been captivated by the appearance of the new pack just as they were by OR-7 (who has his own Twitter feed). We admire these resilient survivors and are intrigued by the notion that wolves can make it in the state. I am a city boy who grew up in the suburbs of Southern California, and the vast majority of Californians are like me: We don’t have day-to-day contact with wilderness. The appearance of the Shasta Pack gives us a connection to the wild, untamed side of our state.
Paradoxically, it has taken careful planning to revive this wild presence. Twenty years ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launched an ambitious program to reintroduce gray wolves into Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. The packs thrived and slowly spread into the Pacific Northwest, and in the past few years, wildlife biologists began predicting that wolves would soon reach California.
When OR-7 appeared in 2011, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife created a working group to help prepare for the long-term presence of wolves in our state. NRDC participated in the group, along with farmers, ranchers, hunters, scientists, and other wildlife advocates.
It was great to have all these voices in one room hashing out the complicated elements of wolf reintroduction. We learned a lot from each other over the course of the working group’s two-year stint. Environmentalists understood more about the everyday lives of Northern California ranchers and farmers — how thin their profit margins are and why they fear wolves could add yet another challenge. Meanwhile, they learned from conservation groups about the many proven, nonlethal ways to reduce conflicts between livestock and wolves, including electric fencing, horseback riders, and guard dogs.
In the coming months, the Department of Fish and Wildlife will release the first draft of its wolf plan. While NRDC and other members of the working group offered input, we don’t know exactly what the plan will contain but hope to see an emphasis on nonlethal methods to reduce conflict.
We want to create an environment where no livestock or wolves are killed. I believe that is possible in California. Wolves are adaptable creatures. They can adjust on the fly and thrive in a variety of surroundings. They have returned to a place that looks a lot different than the one their forbearers knew, but they can still flourish here.
Welcome back to the Golden State, Shasta Pack.
