By NYA Editorial Staff
For the first time since gray wolves began returning to California 15 years ago, a sighting has been confirmed in the Mendocino National Forest.
Gray wolves were driven out of the state a century ago. By the 1920s, they were gone. Hunters and settlers had killed them, and for decades Californians could reasonably assume they would never see a wild wolf in the state again.
Wolves from populations in other states began returning to California in 2011 on their own. Since then, their numbers and range have gradually grown. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife currently describes the gray wolf as a recovering endangered species and says it investigates public reports of possible wolf sightings as part of its monitoring program.
The recent Mendocino National Forest sighting is significant because it is west of the Sacramento Valley, beyond the part of Northern California where wolves have primarily been found in recent years. Wildlife officials verified the sighting using photographs, field surveys and wolf tracks.
This is encouraging because California is one of the most developed and populated places in the country, but large areas remain wild enough to support animals that once seemed extinct.
But not everyone likes their return. For ranchers, wolves can mean the loss of cattle and other livestock. The federal government is now taking another look at wolf protections. On September 4, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to determine whether gray wolves and Mexican wolves meet the criteria for removal from Endangered Species Act protection. The order also calls for recommendations on changing rules involving the lethal removal of wolves in certain situations involving threats to livestock or human safety. The order itself does not immediately remove federal protections.
Following a federal court order, gray wolves regained Endangered Species Act protections across much of their former range in 2022, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service later issued a rule implementing those protections.
California has its own protections as well. The state lists the gray wolf as protected under the California Endangered Species Act, meaning any changes at the federal level would not automatically settle the question of how wolves are managed here.