Three more wolf packs confirmed in California as ranchers call for relief
It was bright and early and Axel Hunnicutt was howling.
He was looking for wolves. Sometimes they howl back, providing a sense of their location.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife this week reported there were three new wolf packs in the state's far north. Hunnicutt, gray wolf coordinator for the agency, was trying to track down one of them — the freshly minted Ashpan pack that consists of at least two wolves roaming eastern Shasta County.
There's also the Ishi pack in eastern Tehama County and the Tunnison pack in central Lassen County. Some experts say there could now be more than 70 wolves living in California.
'I don't want to boast, but I think my howl is pretty good,' Hunnicutt said by phone while heading to the town of Burney, north of Lassen Volcanic National Park. He was taking a break from a day of searching that began at 5 a.m. in an effort to add to the limited information state wildlife officials know about the packs.
The goal is to capture and outfit one of the wolves with a GPS collar. That would allow them to share information about the animal's whereabouts with owners of livestock that could become a meal for the apex predators. And it would make it easier to track them down again and collar more wolves if necessary.
The trio of new packs brings the state total to 10, marking a continued resurgence for the canids protected under state and federal endangered species laws. There were seven packs by the end of last year and just one at this time five years ago.
All of the latest packs were confirmed by what Hunnicutt described as "persistence" — documenting at least two wolves together at least four times in an area over six months. At least three wolves comprise the Ishi pack; it's not clear if one is the offspring of the other two.
It's welcome news for conservationists, who want to see the state's native animals thrive. Many ranchers, however, see the rise of wolves as a threat to their livelihood.
Read more: A dozen wolves collared in California as officials seek to track the growing population
California's wolves were killed off by humans about a century ago, and they only began to recolonize the state about 14 years ago. In recent years, the population has started to take off. There were about 50 by the end of last year, wildlife officials said. The population fluctuates throughout the year as pups are born and die off, and it's likely higher at the moment.
As the number of wolves increases, so does the number of cattle they attack. Between January and March of this year, 26 instances of livestock depredation were being investigated with wolves confirmed as the culprit in 16 of them, according to state data.
Kirk Wilbur, vice president of government affairs for the California Cattlemen's Assn., a trade association representing ranchers and beef producers, said wolves in at least two of the new packs are known to have preyed on livestock.
"There's been a real emotional impact, a real fear impact, in the north state," Wilbur said. "Folks who perhaps have never had a wolf depredation on their herd are nevertheless fearful of the possibility, and the folks who have suffered repeat depredations from wolves, this gets really stressful and taxing and depressing for those producers."
This month, Shasta County joined four other Northern California counties in declaring states of emergency due to wolves. The county's Board of Supervisors also penned a letter to the state wildlife department calling for "immediate assistance and regulatory changes to better equip counties to address this growing concern," according to a news release.
The state has taken steps to address ranchers' concerns. About two weeks ago, the state wildlife department announced the release of an online map that shows the approximate location of GPS-collard wolves. Anyone can check it out, but it's geared toward cluing in ranchers in an effort to prevent wolf-livestock conflict.
California wildlife officials plan to complete a status review of the wolf population and are exploring the possibility of allowing harsher methods to haze the animals, including firing nonlethal ammunition at them.
The state agency also offers reimbursement to ranchers for livestock killed by wolves. At one point, the state also provided money to cover nonlethal tools and indirect losses, but Hunnicutt said the program no longer has enough funding to do so.
Wilbur said the new packs underscore a long-held belief by his group that gray wolves don't need to be on California's endangered species list, where they were added in 2014. Some ranchers want to be able to shoot the broad-muzzled canids, something their protected status precludes.
Read more: Two new wolf packs confirmed in California amid population boom
Hunnicutt said it's not so cut and dried.
'With wolves, if allowed the protections that they have, they do really well, and they recover quickly,' he said. 'On the flip side, it would not take very much to completely topple these 10 packs.'
He pointed out that the hundreds of thousands — and potentially millions — of wolves were eradicated from the Western U.S. within decades.
Roughly 50 animals is generally not considered a "viable population," according to Hunnicutt. If the population reaches about 150, he said protections could probably be relaxed.
Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group, sees the wolves' growth rate as typical. She said the state's 2016 wolf conservation plan identified about 23,000 square miles of suitable wolf habitat just in the region north of Interstate 80. The same plan estimated that that area could support roughly 370 to 500 wolves.
Weiss said misunderstanding and misinformation is fueling backlash against the animals.
'Decades of research shows that conflicts between livestock, wolves and people are rare and preventable,' she said in a statement. 'These magnificent animals have immense value because they help keep nature wild and healthy, and that ultimately benefits humans as well.'
Back in Shasta County, Hunnicutt was hot on the trail of the Ashpan pack. He picked up tracks, which led him to a fresh poop. He scooped it up. 'It's like, ah! I'm gonna figure out who it is,' he said.
He believes the two wolves in the pack might be denning; it's currently the season. That means they bred and the female gave birth in a den, which could be a hollowed-out log or other safe haven.
When wolves are denning, they're anchored to one spot — the den — upping the chances of finding them. It essentially entails trying to locate one square mile of activity in a 1,000-square-mile search area, Hunnicutt said.
'It's hard, but I love it,' he said.
After lunch in Burney, he'd go back to scouting.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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