{"id":267459,"date":"2025-11-02T19:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T19:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/267459\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T19:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T19:41:09","slug":"locals-react-to-state-wolf-kills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/267459\/","title":{"rendered":"Locals react to state wolf kills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials announced<\/a> killing five grey wolves Oct. 24, reaction in Plumas and Sierra counties has been largely somber. Even ranchers who had lost livestock to wolves expressed regrets that the situation had escalated to lethally removing the apex predators.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just sad in so many ways \u2013 sad the wolves were put in this position,\u201d said Rick Roberti in a telephone interview with The Plumas Sun. A Sierra County rancher who has lost several livestock to wolves, Roberti is president of the California Cattlemen\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n

CDFW officials said in October they took \u201cthe difficult step\u201d of lethally removing four gray wolves (Canis lupus) from the Beyem Seyo pack, which has been active in\u00a0 Sierra Valley for well over a year. They targeted a breeding male and female pair, a solo male and a solo female. During the operation a juvenile male was killed accidently, CDFW reported.<\/p>\n

From March 28 to Sept. 10, these four adult wolves were responsible for 70 total livestock losses, representing 63% of wolf-caused livestock losses reported across the state during that time period, according to the CDFW. Over the next month, ranchers reported an additional 17 livestock losses that were considered \u201cprobable\u201d wolf kills.<\/p>\n

Summer Strike Team<\/p>\n

Wolves have been working their way back into California since 2011, when OR-7 <\/a>crossed the border from Oregon into Siskiyou County. His 15-month romp, mostly in California\u2019s northeastern counties, launched the return of a species that had not been seen in the state since 1924. By the summer of 2025, state officials reported<\/a> 10 packs and several wolf activity areas. They estimated the total population at around 50 wolves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The decision to take lethal action followed a summer dedicated to reducing the livestock losses without killing wolves. In June, CDFW deployed the Summer Strike Team, a multi-agency effort to dissuade wolves from preying on cattle. The project, which Roberti estimated to cost $2 million, used drones, bean bags, all-terrain vehicles, foot presence, diversionary feeding and other non-lethal methods to divert wolves away from livestock. The team maintained an active field presence 24-hours a day, seven days a week, CDFW reported.<\/p>\n

Eighteen Sierra Valley ranchers enrolled in the Summer Strike Team program. It deployed over 18,000 staff hours across 114 days, engaging in 95 hazing events that helped to prevent an even greater loss in cattle deaths, the CDFW press release stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet the killing continued<\/a>, said Roberti. The team members \u201cwere good guys who came here to help, but Sierra Valley is big,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe killing never stopped,\u201d said Plumas County Supervisor Dwight Ceresola. His ranch has lost two animals to wolves. \u201cSomething needed to be done. There\u2019s just no stopping these .\u201d<\/p>\n

Reactions range<\/p>\n

CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham said the decision to kill four wolves \u201cwas not made lightly nor was it easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis action follows months of intensive non-lethal management efforts to reduce livestock loss and is grounded in the best available science and understanding of wolf biology,\u201d he said in the department\u2019s press release.<\/p>\n

The death of the wolves left Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, without words to describe her feelings. \u201cAnd I know that countless others are feeling the same way after such a tumultuous summer in the Sierra Valley,\u201d she told The Plumas Sun in an email. Weiss said the livestock-wolf conflicts that escalated throughout the summer could have been prevented.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of these conflicts could have been avoided if ranchers had started proactively implementing conflict-deterrent measures three or four years ago,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wolves are protected as endangered under both state and federal law. They are still a long way from recovery, Weiss said. \u201cKilling them can never be a long-term solution for coexistence with these extraordinary and ecologically essential carnivores.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberti agreed with at least part of that. Wolves are smart, he said. \u201cThey know what they are doing. We don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weiss cited science that documents nonlethal conflict-deterrent measures done in advance as the best way to prevent conflicts from beginning. Significant funds have been available for the last several years through the California legislature to reimburse livestock operators<\/a> for using proactive, nonlethal conflict-prevention measures, she said.<\/p>\n

Escalation in Sierra Valley<\/p>\n

Although Plumas and Sierra county ranchers have been living with wolves killing their livestock for nearly a decade, Roberti said the escalation in Sierra Valley began three years ago. The Beyem Seyo pack, which had been concentrated in Clover Valley west of Sierra Valley, began spending more and more time near Cal Pine, 13 miles southeast of Graeagle. That\u2019s near the Roberti and adjacent ranches in the eastern portion of Sierra Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kept waiting for them to leave,\u201d he said. One wolf did leave but came back \u201call bloodied up,\u201d said Roberti. He speculated that it may have returned to Clover Valley, where it encountered another wolf pack. CDFW officials have documented wolves active in Clover Valley where the Beyem Seyo pack had been.<\/p>\n

Ron Logan, president of Friends of Plumas Wilderness, offered his personal perspective: Removing the four wolves from privately-owned ranches seemed \u201cabout the only solution for now,\u201d he said in a telephone interview. If the killing was as out of control as CDFG officials described, it was necessary. \u201cNothing seemed to be working,\u201d said Logan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He might hold a different view if the wolf kills were on public land, Logan said: \u201cThere\u2019s some sharing that has to go on there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The escalation of livestock depredation over the summer, followed by the killings, has not been good for Sierra Valley or Portola, said Portola Mayor Jim Murphy. The city feels the toll of the economic losses to ranchers, he said. Murphy called the lethal removal of the wolves \u201cappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWolf packs are growing. It\u2019s worrisome. There has to be something to counter the effect on ranchers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Murphy lamented wolves\u2019 contribution to the reduction in ranching, which, with logging, has been the mainstay of the local economy. Plumas-Sierra CattleWomen recently announced they are \u201ccalling it quits\u201d after 60 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are winding down on agriculture, the crux of this area,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little less wild\u201d<\/p>\n

Feather River Action! offered another perspective. A Portola-based grassroots group organized to defend against threats to the Feather River ecosystem, its website Oct. 26 said, \u201cThe Lost Sierra is tragically a little less wild this weekend.\u201d Members of the Beyem Seyo pack were killed \u201csimply for following their instincts and preying on free hamburgers,\u201d Feather River Action! stated on its website.<\/p>\n

Bonham, the CDFW director, acknowledged the disparity of reactions to killing endangered species. \u201cSeveral things can be true simultaneously,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWolves are here in California and that is an amazing ecological return. Yet, their reemergence is a significant, disruptive change for rural communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolves are one of the state\u2019s most iconic species, Bonham continued. \u201cCoexistence is our collective future but that comes with tremendous responsibility and sometimes hard decisions. The Beyem Seyo pack became so reliant on cattle at an unprecedented level, and we could not break the cycle, which ultimately is not good for the long-term recovery of wolves or for people.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

CDFW is continuing operations \u201cto safely capture and relocate the outstanding juveniles to wildlife facilities for their own welfare and to prevent any learned behavior from dispersing to other wolves across California.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked about the future of the Beyem Seyo pack, Roberti said, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials announced killing five grey wolves Oct. 24, reaction in Plumas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-267459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}