BL Special Report: Gray wolves return to California raises increasing concerns among ranchers

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Twenty-nine-year-old Russell Tobias and his father Tom work cattle on the ranch where their large family has been plying its trade in San Benito County since the 1960s. 

Russell Tobias spoke to BenitoLink about an issue that has the local ranching industry increasingly on edge: the repopulation of wolves in California and their migration south to areas less than 150 miles away. 

In late December, BenitoLink drove to Tres Pinos, then veered up Quien Sabe Road to eventually meet up with 29-year-old Russell Tobias and his father Tom to witness them gathering their cattle. After meeting up with them to snap a few photos for this article, it was like taking a step back in time as the two modern-day cowboys rode off into the hills. About an hour later, a stream of 20 or 30 Black Angus cows and their calves, along with one really big Hereford bull, came ambling back as the Tobiases pushed them gently toward a waiting corral.

Farmers and ranchers represent less than 2% of working Americans and less than 1% of the gross national product, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. Ranching families are a small, close-knit group that pays attention and shares information from county to county. The attacks that took place in Siskiyou, Lassen, Modoc, and Shasta counties in 2025 instigated an emotionally charged town hall in Modoc County last February that was soon widely shared via Youtube. 

Wolves can travel great distances and have also recently established a pack of 13 animals as close as 147 miles away in Tulare County. Tobias told BenitoLink that it is not a matter of whether wolves could become established in San Benito, but when.

Tobias said his family is concerned that if wolves appear in the county, their cattle herd could be decimated. If wolf attacks, based on recent history in Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and now Northern California, were to be repeated here, a single pack of wolves can easily kill or cripple full grown cows weighing more than 1,000 pounds, and would more typically pick off calves and yearlings.

San Benito County cattle ranchers, represented by Tobias, who is the current president of the county’s Cattlemen’s Association, and Matt Manning, who is part of the family that owns the Nyland Herefords Ranch LLC in San Juan Bautista, are concerned enough that they are talking about forming a taskforce made up of ranchers, local politicians and concerned citizens to identify their options under current state and federal laws protecting the wolves as an endangered species.

Call for transparency

Tobias said what is important to ranchers is transparency on the part of California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) because, so far, the agency neither confirms nor denies the possibility of wolves already being present in the county or making their way toward it. He said ranchers and the public need to know how many wolves there are in the state and where they’re located.

According to CDFW, using its wolf location automated mapping system, only 14 of the estimated 70 to 75 wolves in the state have GPS tracking collars, which could support Sierra Valley rancher Paul Roen’s contention that “Fish and Wildlife have no idea where most of the wolves are.”

“That data will allow local ranchers to create an action plan to protect their livestock should these apex predators be reintroduced into the system,” Tobias said, adding that members of the proposed task force need to work together to plan for the inevitable in an effort to avoid what has happened in Sierra Valley.

“It’s really dangerous, especially when you look at the larger population in San Benito County,” he said. “If you have a large proliferation of the wolf population on the margins of the human population where there are copious amounts of ranchettes or rural zoned houses, they could be subject to potential predation from these wolves.”

Tobias’ prognostication proved to be all too accurate up north when on Dec. 12, several wolves were spotted extremely close to the Little Shasta Elementary School in Montague, Siskiyou County, according to the Siskiyou News. Multiple sightings occurred within half a mile of the campus, and wolves were also seen chasing cattle less than a mile away. The school went into an emergency shutdown for an entire day.

Some ranchers, including Tobias, believe wolves could already be in South County. While Kristen Kellum, spokesperson for the CDFW, acknowledges that one wolf did, in fact, travel down the state from Oregon, and make its way through the county, she could not with certainty say whether there are no wolves in the county at this time. She told BenitoLink she cannot confirm one way or another if there are any wolves already in the area. 

The San Benito County Farm Bureau designated rancher and board member Mary Lou Coffelt as a member of the Predator Working Group, which was formed to address potential issues with wolves, mountain lions and bears—all predators that the cattle livestock producers face.

“Gray wolves are protected as endangered species under both state and federal law, the California Endangered Species Act and the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA),” Coffelt told BenitoLink. “Wolves rarely pose a direct threat to human safety and generally avoid human presence. It is unlawful to take a wolf in California. This may include to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.” 

Coffelt recently attended the California Farm Bureau’s annual meeting in Anaheim as a delegate and took part in a seminar that addressed the challenges that Sierra Valley has been facing over the last seven months. 

Wolf management Phase 2 

Things are changing, though. Congress has de-listed wolves from the Endangered Species Act, while California still protects them. CDFW has moved into the next phase of its wolf conservation and management plan, reflecting a growing wolf population and increasing conflicts. The agency says Phase 2 includes more rapid depredation reporting, more support for ranchers, expanded monitoring, continued emphasis on non‑lethal tools, and lethal removal only when all other methods fail. 

Rancher Paul Roen, Chair of the Sierra County Supervisors and the Wolf Committee for the California Cattlemen’s Association, said he believes that because CDFW has tagged only 14 wolves and has no idea how many or where the others are, it’s possible there could be hundreds throughout the state. “I would say there probably is a wolf in San Benito County,” he told BenitoLink, “I think there’s a wolf everywhere because the statement that they continue to try to hold to, at 70 or 75 wolves, is absolute bull***t.”

Packs moving into Central California

In the past 14 years, according to the Pacific Wolf Coalition, 10 wolf packs comprising an estimated total of 50 to 70 wolves have become established in California. Nine of the packs are in six northern counties, but one of the largest—the Yowlumni Pack, comprised of two alpha breeding adults and 13 pups—live and hunt in Tulare County between Giant Sequoia National Park and the Tule River Indian Reservation, just 147 miles southeast of San Benito County.

That distance is nominal for a wolf, which was pretty much proven when CDFW tracked a young male wolf, known as OR-93, when it entered California on Jan. 30, 2021, and traversed down the state until it was killed on Hwy 5 in Kern County on Nov. 10 of the same year. Along the way, he zigzagged across Fresno County, two freeways, and then through San Benito and Monterey counties.

Sport killers?

Today, Roen estimates the loss of his 47 head of cattle at $130,000. If, for example, each animal’s average weight was 800 pounds and sold at approximately $3.51 a pound, according to the U.S. Cattle Report on Jan. 5, that would equal about $2,808 per animal, for a total loss of $131,976. This assumes none were breeding cows, which would mean all future generations of cattle would also be lost.

“We also had multiple cows disabled, multiple calves that were spined, so they were paralyzed,” he said. “We had to shoot animals every day that were still alive, but paralyzed. It [wolf predation] was sport killing.” 

Roen told BenitoLink how a government “sniper” had to watch as one of the wolves killed a calf and then walked away without eating any of it. He said he doesn’t trust CDFW to properly manage the wolves or help ranchers. 

Even though there is presently $2 million in the California Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program that was approved in July 2025, and is administered by CDFW’s Biodiversity Conservation Program, no rancher has been compensated for a single head of livestock killed by wolves, according to Roen. 

“They lie every time they talk to me,” he said. “We’ve been in a full-on war all summer until we got those [four wolves killed] removed. And throughout the whole process it took them [CDFW] almost a month once we got the order signed by the Department of Fish & Wildlife Service [USFWS] to remove them.”

According to the CDFW website, Roen is mistaken in thinking federal agents killed the wolves. The state said they were killed by California state wildlife wardens, not U.S. Fish & Wildlife. So, even though gray wolves are protected under both the state and federal endangered species acts, the state authorized lethal removal because both laws contain emergency exceptions that allow killing a protected animal when it is necessary to stop ongoing, severe damage and all non‑lethal methods have failed, according to CDFW, which added that the wardens used tranquilizers and lethal injections, and one juvenile was mistakenly shot from a helicopter.

Krysten Kellum, Information Officer for CDFW, responded to Roen’s accusations on Dec. 5. 

“The California Department of Fish and Wildlife understands the difficulty ranching communities face in the return of gray wolves to the state, and is deeply committed to supporting both ranchers impacted by gray wolves and successful management of California’s gray wolf population,” Kellum said. 

“When Sierra Valley ranchers were impacted by increased livestock depredations during the summer of 2025,” she continued, “CDFW developed a program to haze wolves from ranching properties 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Though CDFW worked in conjunction with the federal government, as gray wolves are a federally and state listed endangered species, the management action taken this fall which removed four gray wolves from the Beyem Seyo pack in the Sierra Valley was undertaken by CDFW.” 

She added, “CDFW remains in communication with impacted Californians to successfully implement nonlethal measures for ranching properties that will help prevent future livestock loss.”

Under state and federal endangered species acts, it is “unlawful to take any such [endangered] species within the United States.”  In addition, under USFWS regulations (50 C.F.R.& 17.21(c)), the sole federal exception to killing a wolf is “in the defense of human life.”

In Wyoming, however, wolves were delisted under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2012, and according to Wyoming state law, in the Northern Rockies area of the state they are considered “trophy animals” for hunting.

The Endangered Species Act also contains a narrow exception that allows killing a protected species to protect human life or prevent serious property damage, according to the website. And only when non‑lethal methods have failed, can the action be carried out by authorized federal or state agents, USFWS is notified or involved. 

Town hall explodes 

Ranchers in northern California counties, along with CDFW, and USFWS, came together last February in Modoc County to discuss the wolves’ protected status. The town hall consisted of a supervisor’s workshop hosted by Sheriff William “Tex” Dowdy and Modoc County Supervisor Ned Coe. 

BenitoLink viewed the meeting on YouTube. Following brief introductions of several speakers, the Q&A session turned into a heated discussion over wildlife policy and the rights of ranchers. Dowdy insinuated, without proof, that CDFW has been introducing wolves, lions and bears into Modoc County.

Several ranchers expressed their concerns about livestock depredation, economic losses and calls for stronger local control over wolf management. Conservation advocates spoke of wolves as a keystone species that restored ecological balance. They spoke against lethal removal, urging coexistence strategies. 

Recently, Riley Der Manuelian, a ranch hand and videographer in Amador County, posted a short piece on YouTube telling from the ranchers’ side how wolves have been attacking cattle for months. 

Wolves removed from ESA

USFWS introduced Canadian grey wolves into Yellowstone and Central Idaho in 1995 and 1996. Wolves then naturally migrated into Oregon in 1999, with the first pups born in 2009. In late December 2011, the first Oregon wolf (designated OR-7) migrated into California, and the first registered wolf pack was established in 2015. No wolves have ever been relocated or released into Oregon or California by wildlife agencies, according to the official CDFW wolf page.

On Dec. 18, the House of Representatives voted 211-204 to remove federal protection for the gray wolf. It passed the Pet and Livestock Protection Act (H.R. 845), which would de-list the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act across the lower 48 states and block courts from overturning the de-listing. 

If the U.S. Senate passes the legislation and it becomes law, it would reissue the 2020 rule that removed ESA protection for gray wolves nationwide and prohibit judicial review, meaning environmental groups could not sue to re-list wolves again. Wolf management would return to the states, including lethal control, hunting seasons, and depredation response. 

California, however, would most likely not follow Congress’s lead. Under the California Endangered Species Act, a species listed as endangered in California remains protected until the CDFW Commission votes to delist it. 

Assemblymember promises compensation 

According to her July 24, 2025, news release, Republican Assemblywoman Heather Hadwick (R-Alturas) asked California farmers and ranchers to document their losses from wolf depredations to justify increasing funding beyond the $2 million already approved in the 2025 state budget that included her initial bill, AB102, to fund the Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program.

The release stated that the original budget proposal contained “zero dollars” for wolf depredation, and she fought to secure the $2 million. She also stated that a “UC Davis study found each wolf can cause between $69,000 and $162,000 in direct and indirect losses annually.” The study looked only at three wolf packs, not the estimated 70 to 75 wolves in the state, which could result in a potential total loss between $1.4 million and $3.4 million.

According to reports from Sierra Daily News, Hadwick has not yet introduced or promised a specific dollar figure beyond the $2 million already secured for the program. She has stated publicly that the $2 million “will run out quickly” and emphasized that ranchers must document losses to justify future requests for more funding, but no legislative proposal with an additional amount has been filed or announced.

Bottom line

Wolves are now confirmed to also be in Tulare and Kern counties, but not yet in San Benito County, which lies outside the active-wolf zones, and there is no regular activity or official designation of wolf territory here as of late 2025.

Meanwhile, CDFW advises anyone who sees something—large canine tracks, unusual wild-canid behavior, or what looks like a wolf—that the best step is to document the evidence carefully and report it to CDFW so experts can investigate.

While CDFW has not released any data on populations of deer and elk in Northern California since wolves re-entered the state, Dowdy and rancher Debra Cockrell said at the Modoc County town hall the numbers of deer and elk have diminished substantially since the wolf population has increased.

“We used to have over 200 head of deer on the ranch,” Cockrell said. “Now you might see a group of 10 at the most. The balance of predator animals versus prey animals is out of control. Predator animals will find food whether it be cattle, sheep, horses, elk, dogs, and cats, and eventually humans.” 

According to an article on Mongabay, a conservation and environmental news website, “California’s wolves, which naturally dispersed south from Oregon, are now further expanding their territories, with more frequent encounters—and conflict—with humans.”

According to Axel Hunnicutt, a biologist coordinating the CDFW wolf program, said in the article, “Almost every pack does overlap to some degree with an agricultural area with livestock. Almost every group has killed livestock. That’s one thing that unites all of the packs in California, unfortunately.”

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