Last week, several Tehama County Cattlemen and CattleWomen were in Reno for the 109th California Cattlemen\u2019s Association and 72nd California CattleWomen\u2019s Convention at the Atlantis Casino and Resort. TCCA President Dave Stroing, Mike and Donna Marino, Steve and Peggy Zane, Chance and Gracie LeCheminant, TCCW President Joan Growney, Kendra McCluskey, Jean Barton and featured speaker in a general session, Erin Borror, V.P. of Economic Analysis for the U.S. Meat Export Federation speaking on \u201cTrade and Tariff Talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
First time for the convention to be at the Atlantis Casino & Resort, and first time for me to see a robotic vacuum cleaner in action in the hallway.\u00a0 There were 149 Young Cattlemen attending the annual convention from Cal Poly, U.C.Davis, Chico State and Fresno State.<\/p>\n
At the CowBelle of Year Luncheon, Donna Marino was recognized and presented an engraved silver bracelet, and we received a colorful booklet telling of the 24 honorees\u2019 accomplishments. I knew Donna as our TCCW Treasurer but the booklet was informative.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe Tehama County CattleWomen are proud to honor Donna Marino as our CowBelle of the Year.\u00a0 She is an outstanding member and so deserving of this award with her dedication to details and always volunteering to help with all of our events.<\/p>\n
Dr. Donna Marino is a California girl born and raised.\u00a0 She grew up in Orange County, where life was more about the beach and working at Disneyland than cattle pastures.\u00a0 She always had a love for animals, and attending the County Fair was a favorite pastime for her.\u00a0 After high school, she attended Nursing School at the University of San Francisco.\u00a0 She then went on to Medical School and became a pediatrician.\u00a0 During her 25-year career, Donna transitioned from private practice to being Medical Director at a community clinic serving the poor and developed a passion for childhood nutrition and school meals.<\/p>\n
Donna met her husband, Michael, in Medical School, and they have three sons.\u00a0 Her first exposure to the cattle industry was on family road trips when they played her favorite game \u201cname that breed\u201d of cows in the fields and she always won.\u00a0 Michael was a physician also but had worked on ranches as a young man and always dreamed of being a cattle rancher.\u00a0 So, during Covid, they embraced that \u201cbucket list\u201d item together and purchased an Angus cattle ranch an hour south of the Canadian border.\u00a0 Donna retired from medicine and took over the ranching chores of caring for the cows and learning to operate the equipment.\u00a0 Her first hay season she moved 300 round bales out from their fields by herself. Not only has Donna fallen in love with ranching she\u2019s now a proud \u201cShow Grandma\u201d with grandchildren on the circuit in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n
The Washington mud brought Donna back to California, where they settled in Red Bluff to raise miniature Herefords instead of big girls.\u00a0 After only a few months, Donna joined the Tehama County CattleWomen, transitioning into being elected as the unit Treasurer.\u00a0 She has worked diligently to manage the books, get the units DOJ Charitable Trust, support fundraising, participate in beef promotion events, and represent the unit at several state and national meetings.<\/p>\n
We are so honored to select Donna Marino as our CowBelle of the Year!\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Shasta County CowBelle is Ginger Fowler, who was elected as CCW 2nd Vice President during the CCW business meeting, and Rebecca Toomey for Butte County.<\/p>\n
The traditional \u201cTradeshow Welcome Party\u201d featured music from Red Bluff\u2019s Chad Bushnell and his band, and Western Video Market sponsored the bar.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the program read WOLF MEETING, 3-5 p.m., Grand Ballroom 2 & 3. Paul Souza, U.S.Fish & Wildlife Service, Pacific Southwest Region Director; Dr. Kaggie Orrick, U.C. Berkeley, Calif. Wolf Project Director; Jeffrey B. Flores, USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service Calif. State Director, Acting Oregon State Director; Dr. Tina Saitone, University of Calif., Davis Agricultural\u00a0 & Resource Economics Professor of Extension;\u00a0 Paul Roen, CCA Wolf Policy Subcommittee Chair & Sierra County Supervisor.<\/p>\n
Core Team: Mike Fisher, Sierra Co. Sheriff; Dwight Ceresola, Plumas Co. Supervisor & livestock producer; Rick Roberti, rancher communication and media spokesperson; Paul Roen, Sierra Co. Supervisor & ranch manager, depredation investigation representative, media spokesperson, liaison to CDFW strike team & USDA Drone team. Tracy Schohr, UC Cooperative Extension local advisor \u2013 facilitated USFWS conversations, coordinated educational trainings for ranchers, hosted tours for agency representatives, depredation report management, rancher outreach and coordinated Core Team communication.\u00a0 Tina Tate, Ph.D., UC Cooperative Extension Specialist \u2013 research advisor, planning and strategic communications.<\/p>\n
CCA President Rick Roberti moderated, with an overview from the Sierra Valley Core Team. Wolves have hit everyone in Sierra Valley.<\/p>\n
Paul Roen told us the wolves came in April, and the first kill was in three days, a yearling.\u00a0 By May 14th, they were killing cows.\u00a0 Roen calves in July.\u00a0 They noticed the wolves disappeared during the day, coming out at night to kill.\u00a0 \u00a0There are 120,000 acres of flat ground in Sierra Valley.\u00a0 The Sheriff fought for his community when six were killed in four four-mile area.<\/p>\n
Sheriff Fisher got other county sheriffs involved, and they have been a big help in Northern California.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to engage elected officials.\u201d He was able to have a meeting with Assemblymembers and State Senators. The dead cattle proved legal action.\u00a0 \u201cIt was a long process to get the three wolves removed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sierra County has lost 10% of the elk herd. This summer a wolf killed an elk and we saw a photo of blood on house step, (carcass had been removed.) \u00a0Fisher repeated to us, \u201cWork with local elected officials.\u00a0 Need strong individuals that are willing to fight for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farm Advisor Tracy Schohr mentioned that ranchers were not using their grazing permits because of wolves.\u00a0 Sierra Valley has lost its lumber industry, and the cattle are important to the valley and the community.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Tina Tate, Ph.D., and the late Dr. Ken Tate began researching wolf packs when there were three packs; by 2025, there were 10. In 2024, there were about 50 wolves, with 35 reproducing.\u00a0 The Beyem Seyo Wolf Pack had six pups this summer.<\/p>\n
The Beyem Seyo Pack was declared a pack by CDFW in mid-2023.\u00a0 Alpha female was a descendant of the Lassen Pack, and alpha male descended from the Whaleback Pack. Between March 7 and October 10, 2025, the three wolves (that were removed) were confirmed to have killed or injured 92 animals.\u00a0 78 calves, 11 yearlings and three cows.<\/p>\n
Agency Intervention Costs.\u00a0 CDFW Summer Strike Team: June to September 2025, 18,000 staff hours over 114 days; 24-7 field presence engaged in non-lethal hazing, enhanced human presence, diversionary feeding.\u00a0 $ 2 million.<\/p>\n
USDA Wildlife Services Drone Team:\u00a0 August 22 \u2013 September 30, 2025.\u00a0 36 nights of operation with 3-4 pilots per night.\u00a0\u00a0 1,000 flights (500 flight hours) with 70 wolf hazing events.\u00a0 $60,000.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
The Tehama County Board of Supervisors, on December 9, 2025, voted to \u201cOppose reintroduction of wolves in Tehama County,\u201d with Josh Davy, UC Cooperative Extension, speaking for Tehama County Cattlemen and Tehama County Farm Bureau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, several Tehama County Cattlemen and CattleWomen were in Reno for the 109th California Cattlemen\u2019s Association and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1955,7,51427,23,51428,100,180,266,51429,121,123,122,39142,6981],"class_list":["post-93504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-agriculture","tag-california","tag-corning","tag-local-news","tag-los-molinos","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-northern-california","tag-red-bluff","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-shasta-cascade","tag-tehama-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}