Concerns about wolves and other predators prompt hearing at California Capitol
California lawmakers on Tuesday are set to begin discussions on how to better manage the impacts on humans and livestock of the state’s growing populations of wolves, mountain lions and other predators.
The informational hearing before the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife will include presentations from cattle ranchers, environmentalists, law enforcement agencies and others on how to limit what’s known as human-wildlife conflict — and how to pay for the personnel, equipment and programs needed to do so.
The hearing comes after an unprecedented volume of attacks by wolves on livestock in the state’s northern ranch land, as well as several high-profile incidents involving mountain lions, bear and coyotes. In a state that prides itself on environmental stewardship, it highlights a growing tension between the desire to protect wildlife and concerns about the danger some animals may present to humans, pets and livestock.
“This is really an opportunity for the committee to get perspectives from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, from researchers and from folks on the ground about human-wildlife conflict,” said Kirk Wilbur, vice president for government relations at the California Cattleman’s Association.
In October, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife euthanized three adult wolves and one juvenile from the Beyem Seo pack in Sierra Valley, after months of interventions failed to stop the animals from attacking cattle, the state’s first authorized killing of endangered wolves in a century.
The pack killed 92 cows and calves over a period of just over six months, in what experts said was a highly unusual focus on feeding on livestock instead of wild prey. The state spent more than $2 million trying to frighten the wolves away from local ranches with drones, rubber bullets and other nonlethal methods, but the efforts of a round-the-clock team of game wardens and scientists were unsuccessful.
Both environmentalists and local ranchers and officials said the state began its efforts too late, and called the situation a tragedy. The first wolf to be killed was a juvenile who was shot in error from a helicopter. After that, officials decided to use tranquilizer darts to take down the animals believed to be the three adults in the pack before euthanizing them.
The department intended to send the pack’s remaining three juveniles to a wolf sanctuary, but have been unable to locate them. In Lassen County earlier this month, wolves from a different pack hunted down an aging horse who was a family pet, injuring him so severely he had to be euthanized. Those wolves also killed a newly weaned calf.
In 2024, a man in El Dorado County was killed by a mountain lion, and last year a mountain lion was euthanized after it killed four goats near a daycare center in Yuba County.
In 2023 a Downieville woman was “eaten alive” by a black bear, Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher said.
Coyotes are encroaching on urban areas, and have killed household pets and livestock, while sometimes also biting humans. Some San Diego residents said at a recent hearing that they were afraid to go on the beach at night as coyotes roamed. In a sign of how divisive the question of how to manage predators in the state has become, a proposal last year to offer limited protections to coyotes was tabled after an uproar from farmers, ranchers and residents of communities where the canine predators are common.
Still, California has some of the strongest environmental protections for wildlife in the nation. Wolves are protected under both the state and federal endangered species acts, making it illegal to kill or intensely harass them in the vast majority of cases. It is also illegal under most circumstances to kill mountain lions in the state, and black bear also have regulatory protections.
The protections have allowed the animals to flourish, but have also made it complicated for those tasked with responding to potential or real attacks on people or livestock. Last year, five North State counties declared public safety emergencies regarding wolves, and asked the state for permission to euthanize the protected predators in some circumstances.
At Tuesday’s hearing, the Cattleman’s Association plans to ask the legislature for about $30 million in funding for CDFW to manage wolf populations, Wilbur said. About $25 million of that would be used to reimburse ranchers and farmers for the value of livestock killed or injured by wolves. The rest of the funds would be used for a more robust program of collaring and tracking wolves, research and unanticipated expenses such as the strike team that spent the summer trying the manage the wolves in Sierra County, he said.
This story was originally published January 27, 2026 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Concerns about wolves and other predators prompt hearing at California Capitol."
