its crazy that theres humans who think you can just 'own' entire valleys of land. also dont they realize fencing everything off like that is part of the issue? if the wolves cant get to their wild prey, you cant be surprised when they go after the only other prey available: domesticated animals that are fenced in and have nowhere else to go. you cant put out free food for them like that and then complain when they go eat it
I admire that you are 3rd generation park ranger, thank you for caring and taking care of our natural resources. You are such a amazing, you , your wife and your beautiful daughter ❤️ 💕 💖 I'm 45 now but if I could go back in time 100% I would have become a park ranger but as in life you are realize sometimes what you want to do later in life. I wish you and your whole wonderful family a long, wonderful, happy life on this wonderful Earth 🌎 ✨️ 💕
If yall are ever interested in coming down and checking out the Yowlumni pack in Sequoia, let me know, i know of a valley in national forest where they seem to like to hang out. Me and my dad spotted the pack on a closed forest road like 4 weeks ago. They've started killing cattle as well.
@@SuperSpitfire99 thanks! Ya, wildlife conservation really started with Sportsman groups or individuals like Aldo Leopold. We talk about this a lot. Appreciate your comment too!
NIcely done video, Joe. The CDFW compensation program with ranchers, CCA, Defenders of Wildlife, and Farm Bureau is funded and based on co-existence with wolves rather than paying for carcasses (which doesn't work). While developing the program, the most interesting comment I heard from a rancher was they didn't like the wolves, but they're there, and it's better to do something pro-active about it which is what co-existence is all about.
We’ve had wolves in the Sierras for almost 3 decades now. It was in the mid to late 90’s. I was deer hunting in D7 up around Wishon Reservoir, and I was up in the Hoffman mt area. It was getting into dusk, and I was hiking a small spike road used for logging at one time, and all of a sudden I hear this ruckus above me coming towards me. I couldn’t see what or how many were coming. I checked my rifle, un did the safety and waited. These two huge “coyotes” came out, pretty sure they weren’t aware of me, and cleared an, easily, 8-10 wide road and just kept going. Pretty cool, kept walking, eventually went back to the truck, and ran into a Game Warden that I’d run into often. Told her what I thought I saw, and she kinda chuckled, and said those weren’t coyotes, they’re wolves….. I thought she was full of it, but she told me they had been reintroducing wolves back into the Sierras. I’ve looked for them ever since. I’ve seen a lot of actual coyotes but have yet to see them again. Wish I had caught it on film.
@@visamedic very cool story. I agree, too, that wolves were probably making their way down into California …and leaving again…long before we had a wolf monitoring program here in the state. I’ve heard anecdotes like this from more than a few folks. Thanks for commenting!
Plumas/Lassen native here. I grew up in Indian Valley, now in Lassen County on the other side of the mountains. Are you guys still around the area? I got an early photo of a Lassen Pack wolf in 2021 on a DSLR camera trap after two years of trying. I have a gallery in Susanville.
@@RandyRobbinsPhotography hey Randy, I think we saw that picture on Facebook maybe when we first started researching this project? We’re not still around, but don’t live too far away. That’s awesome you grew up in the Vallley -what a beautiful place. Gallery looks amazing I just checked it out online. We’ll stop in when we cruise through Susanville.
I understand that people need to be educated on living with predators but they also need to be educated on shifting their attitudes that they have a right to kill any so called threat. They have the obligation to protect their animals with proper shelter and livestock guardians. They shouldn’t keep breeding animals that don’t protect themselves or their young. Responsible ranchers have employed these methods extremely successfully. This has been done in areas with all manner of predators. In Texas we have ranchers that blame coyotes for the deaths of calves that were only scavenged upon. I have witnessed this firsthand repeatedly. They don’t provide good husbandry and tell people coyotes are killing the calves that die from illness. For those raised just for family consumption in small numbers it isn’t hard to provide fences and shelter at night that protect and for the people raising for profit they are losing way more to predatory companies that drive up food costs and keep the prices ranchers get to low. People need comprehensive education on the manner to protect their animals as well as their DUTY to do so without killing the wildlife that has the right to exist as well. People here just shoot the bobcat or coyote over the loss of a few chickens instead of taking responsibility for providing proper non lethal protection. It is not just laziness but a culture of ignorance and selfishness that is pervasive and needs to be addressed. I don’t say this as some high and mighty moral authority. I have had to look at my own actions and beliefs many times and come to the painful truth of my failure to act and think as a good person. Shame isn’t fun or pleasant but it is better than continuing on a path of ignorance cruelty and injustice. I hope better resources are available to ranchers to help educate them on sustainable solutions and obligations and that they stand together to face the real threat of corporate greed.
“My neighbor has a couple pigs and a few sheep, that’s their livelihood.” Yes, let’s completely destroy any chances of a keystone species making a comeback in a massive wild area for 2 pigs. That’s true selfishness.
Many assume that wolves roamed widely in California. Yet there is very little historical record or evidence of the historical range of wolves in CA (documented skins or skulls, stories from miners, trappers, Natives, drawings or photos). The CA Wolf Management plan and the current state wolf coordinator will confirm this lack of documentation. So are we choosing to encourage and strictly protect a top carnivore throughout the state that may have never occupied the state in great numbers? Is there a place for wolves in CA now with over 38 million people? Is there an adequate wild prey base? Does near total protection from population management strategies which prevents killing problem wolves and lions (plus increasing black bear, bobcat & coyote populations) negatively affect the state deer and elk populations? Most states compensate ranchers for loss yet CA legislators provide little funding to do so (mere $600K now in 24/25 budget down from $3 million). And the state compensation process is very cumbersome. I'd appreciate an open discussion of the issues I mentioned.
Most of the people live near the coast, and California is a very large state, and the population in the the Sierra Nevada area is very small. Wolfs are generally very shy animals, and will generally try and avoid humans. As far as wolves being native to California, of course they’re native, just just like their native to the lower 48, but were hunted to extinction. Most of the animals in our country now came from Canada and Alaska. The grizzly bear too was native, and Los Angeles 160 more or less years ago had a lot of grizzlies roaming the basin. I’m in Santa Clarita, northern LA county, and we have black bears and mountain lions in our local mountains and desert, a long with rattlesnakes and bob cats. FYI, about 20 years ago they talked about reintroducing the grizzly bears again, but that got shut down real fast, because as you pointed out, the population.
Some tough questions asked here, no doubt, and well researched. David, we're very curious to hear your ideal management strategy for wolves, knowing that 1) they do have an impact to food producers, 2) the California population is still listed on the Federal (and State) Endangered Species list , and 3) the majority of those 38 million (that really is so many people) are likely in favor of wolves being protected in some fashion in this state (that is to say, even if the Feds de-listed the gray wolf here ,like they recently did in portions of the Northern Rockies). If you could press a magic policy button, what would Wolf Management in California look like --and how would it be embraced/supported by the democratic majority of Californians? Love the open dialogue. Wildlife management aint easy folks.
Sounds like you (MrDellasc) are saying it is OK to have wolves but just in the rural Sierra Nevada range for only those people to deal with the conflict. There are millions of people in the rural Sierras and many are ranchers or backyard livestock owners. It is a fact that wolves generally avoid humans, but they do prey on our livestock. I'd love to see any evidence that you have that wolves were widespread in California historically. But regardless the environment or habitat is way different than historical. Just as you insinuate that it is not feasible to have grizzlies in their historic CA range b/c it might aggravate the people there now, so is true for many rural people in the path of CA wolves now.@@MrDellasc
@@davidvalle3492 First off, I’m not for or against the wolves being in California. I stumbled up the video and I think it’s well done and is a fascinating subject. But I have a question for you, do you really think that wolves have NEVER been native to California, in the thousands of years before our European ancestors came to this continent? And I’d be interested in what evidence that you have that say’s wolves were never native to California. As far as the ranchers go, there is a blue print on how to do it, which is how the ranchers are doing it in the other western states, like Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska and Canada. As I stated in my first post, the wolves came here on their own, they weren’t re-introduced. Odd’s are, they may end up leaving or dying out.
@@MrDellascabout the grizzly bear reintroduction they actually still working on it they plan to do more work on it this fall or 2025 and they just got permission to reintroduce grizzly in north cascades that makes Grizzly reintroduction in California more possible than ever I think they gunna reintroduce grizzly bears in California in near future !
@@bradunderwood1733 the good news is that the California Cattlemen's Association is actively working with state leaders to ramp up this program even more. According to Beef Magazine from this year: "CCA says that it has been pleased to work with CDFW to develop “the most comprehensive wolf compensation program in the West” and that it would hate to see the program be terminated. “Not only does that program compensate ranchers for their losses, it also helps further the department’s goal of implementing non-lethal wolf deterrence and the conflict deterrent effects of the program further benefit wolf recovery in California,” says CCA’s Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur. CCA is actively encouraging state leaders to include funding for the program in this year’s budget."
We get this comment a lot, and we always follow up with this question: Do you believe that the return of Rocky Mountain Elk to Modoc, Lassen, Plumas, and Sierra Counties was based on reintroduction as well? As you'll see in some upcoming episodes, the elk are back too. Which is so cool and could open up hunting opportunities once their populations get a bit bigger. Our point is that if you believe Elk could re-populate their former range in California, moving back down from Idaho and Oregon, why couldn't the wolves?
No one reintroduced the wolf’s, they came in on their own. The fish and game people believe they most likely came from one of Oregon packs. People forget how much open space California has. Most of the population live within a hundred miles of the coast.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
its crazy that theres humans who think you can just 'own' entire valleys of land. also dont they realize fencing everything off like that is part of the issue? if the wolves cant get to their wild prey, you cant be surprised when they go after the only other prey available: domesticated animals that are fenced in and have nowhere else to go. you cant put out free food for them like that and then complain when they go eat it
I admire that you are 3rd generation park ranger, thank you for caring and taking care of our natural resources. You are such a amazing, you , your wife and your beautiful daughter ❤️ 💕 💖 I'm 45 now but if I could go back in time 100% I would have become a park ranger but as in life you are realize sometimes what you want to do later in life. I wish you and your whole wonderful family a long, wonderful, happy life on this wonderful Earth 🌎 ✨️ 💕
If yall are ever interested in coming down and checking out the Yowlumni pack in Sequoia, let me know, i know of a valley in national forest where they seem to like to hang out. Me and my dad spotted the pack on a closed forest road like 4 weeks ago. They've started killing cattle as well.
Great video! I hope the best for the wolves and the ranchers. Keep up the good work.
@@davidshelley7379 thanks… we feel the same way
Great video, what a fine balance man and animal must take to not hunt these wolves to extinction again.
It is a very delicate balancing act, and many people on both sides of this issue are still figuring out how to get it right.
“Van is a hunter through and through to his core, he’s also quite the naturalist and knows a ton about wildlife”. Most good hunters are. Great video
@@SuperSpitfire99 thanks! Ya, wildlife conservation really started with Sportsman groups or individuals like Aldo Leopold. We talk about this a lot. Appreciate your comment too!
NIcely done video, Joe. The CDFW compensation program with ranchers, CCA, Defenders of Wildlife, and Farm Bureau is funded and based on co-existence with wolves rather than paying for carcasses (which doesn't work). While developing the program, the most interesting comment I heard from a rancher was they didn't like the wolves, but they're there, and it's better to do something pro-active about it which is what co-existence is all about.
Yet another wonderful video with beautiful footage and sage insights. TY!
@@leighbartoo574 thanks so much, as always!!
Thanks guys. Love the videos.
Thanks for saying something!!
We’ve had wolves in the Sierras for almost 3 decades now. It was in the mid to late 90’s. I was deer hunting in D7 up around Wishon Reservoir, and I was up in the Hoffman mt area. It was getting into dusk, and I was hiking a small spike road used for logging at one time, and all of a sudden I hear this ruckus above me coming towards me. I couldn’t see what or how many were coming. I checked my rifle, un did the safety and waited. These two huge “coyotes” came out, pretty sure they weren’t aware of me, and cleared an, easily, 8-10 wide road and just kept going. Pretty cool, kept walking, eventually went back to the truck, and ran into a Game Warden that I’d run into often. Told her what I thought I saw, and she kinda chuckled, and said those weren’t coyotes, they’re wolves….. I thought she was full of it, but she told me they had been reintroducing wolves back into the Sierras. I’ve looked for them ever since. I’ve seen a lot of actual coyotes but have yet to see them again. Wish I had caught it on film.
@@visamedic very cool story. I agree, too, that wolves were probably making their way down into California …and leaving again…long before we had a wolf monitoring program here in the state. I’ve heard anecdotes like this from more than a few folks. Thanks for commenting!
Yeah. I had no idea prior to that that they were reintroducing them. BIGGEST dogs I’d ever seen in the mountains 😅
Plumas/Lassen native here. I grew up in Indian Valley, now in Lassen County on the other side of the mountains. Are you guys still around the area? I got an early photo of a Lassen Pack wolf in 2021 on a DSLR camera trap after two years of trying. I have a gallery in Susanville.
@@RandyRobbinsPhotography hey Randy, I think we saw that picture on Facebook maybe when we first started researching this project? We’re not still around, but don’t live too far away. That’s awesome you grew up in the Vallley -what a beautiful place. Gallery looks amazing I just checked it out online. We’ll stop in when we cruise through Susanville.
@@Where_The_Wild_Roam Thanks! Would be cool to meet you guys and swap stories. Let me know when you're passing through!
This is so cool! Just found this channel leaving sub for sure! Take it easy my friend!
@@TrailStrider909 awesome, thanks for tuning in.
@@Where_The_Wild_Roam You bet my fellow explorer!!
Great stuff guys! Its been a long wait though... I guess you're busy with other life issues...
@@sujiphoto thanks for your patience! Yes, self-funded passion projects often get nudged aside 🫤. And thanks for your great feedback as always.
Happy wolves back in California unliked other states they had to be reintroduced but California they came by themselves
it's so nice to see fox. they are underrated predators.
I understand that people need to be educated on living with predators but they also need to be educated on shifting their attitudes that they have a right to kill any so called threat. They have the obligation to protect their animals with proper shelter and livestock guardians. They shouldn’t keep breeding animals that don’t protect themselves or their young. Responsible ranchers have employed these methods extremely successfully. This has been done in areas with all manner of predators. In Texas we have ranchers that blame coyotes for the deaths of calves that were only scavenged upon. I have witnessed this firsthand repeatedly. They don’t provide good husbandry and tell people coyotes are killing the calves that die from illness. For those raised just for family consumption in small numbers it isn’t hard to provide fences and shelter at night that protect and for the people raising for profit they are losing way more to predatory companies that drive up food costs and keep the prices ranchers get to low. People need comprehensive education on the manner to protect their animals as well as their DUTY to do so without killing the wildlife that has the right to exist as well. People here just shoot the bobcat or coyote over the loss of a few chickens instead of taking responsibility for providing proper non lethal protection. It is not just laziness but a culture of ignorance and selfishness that is pervasive and needs to be addressed. I don’t say this as some high and mighty moral authority. I have had to look at my own actions and beliefs many times and come to the painful truth of my failure to act and think as a good person. Shame isn’t fun or pleasant but it is better than continuing on a path of ignorance cruelty and injustice. I hope better resources are available to ranchers to help educate them on sustainable solutions and obligations and that they stand together to face the real threat of corporate greed.
THIS. thank you for spelling it out.
An intelligent rancher should plan for loss of herd to predation from wildlife. Thanks for another high quality vid.
awesome
thanks Dillon!
“My neighbor has a couple pigs and a few sheep, that’s their livelihood.” Yes, let’s completely destroy any chances of a keystone species making a comeback in a massive wild area for 2 pigs. That’s true selfishness.
Yay, I love your videos. They always make me and my family laugh and I love wolves. They’re so cute.❤❤❤🤗🤗🤗
@@Blackrose5842-u4q wow thanks so much! That means a lot to us
Many assume that wolves roamed widely in California. Yet there is very little historical record or evidence of the historical range of wolves in CA (documented skins or skulls, stories from miners, trappers, Natives, drawings or photos). The CA Wolf Management plan and the current state wolf coordinator will confirm this lack of documentation. So are we choosing to encourage and strictly protect a top carnivore throughout the state that may have never occupied the state in great numbers? Is there a place for wolves in CA now with over 38 million people? Is there an adequate wild prey base? Does near total protection from population management strategies which prevents killing problem wolves and lions (plus increasing black bear, bobcat & coyote populations) negatively affect the state deer and elk populations? Most states compensate ranchers for loss yet CA legislators provide little funding to do so (mere $600K now in 24/25 budget down from $3 million). And the state compensation process is very cumbersome. I'd appreciate an open discussion of the issues I mentioned.
Most of the people live near the coast, and California is a very large state, and the population in the the Sierra Nevada area is very small. Wolfs are generally very shy animals, and will generally try and avoid humans. As far as wolves being native to California, of course they’re native, just just like their native to the lower 48, but were hunted to extinction. Most of the animals in our country now came from Canada and Alaska. The grizzly bear too was native, and Los Angeles 160 more or less years ago had a lot of grizzlies roaming the basin. I’m in Santa Clarita, northern LA county, and we have black bears and mountain lions in our local mountains and desert, a long with rattlesnakes and bob cats. FYI, about 20 years ago they talked about reintroducing the grizzly bears again, but that got shut down real fast, because as you pointed out, the population.
Some tough questions asked here, no doubt, and well researched. David, we're very curious to hear your ideal management strategy for wolves, knowing that 1) they do have an impact to food producers, 2) the California population is still listed on the Federal (and State) Endangered Species list , and 3) the majority of those 38 million (that really is so many people) are likely in favor of wolves being protected in some fashion in this state (that is to say, even if the Feds de-listed the gray wolf here ,like they recently did in portions of the Northern Rockies).
If you could press a magic policy button, what would Wolf Management in California look like --and how would it be embraced/supported by the democratic majority of Californians? Love the open dialogue. Wildlife management aint easy folks.
Sounds like you (MrDellasc) are saying it is OK to have wolves but just in the rural Sierra Nevada range for only those people to deal with the conflict. There are millions of people in the rural Sierras and many are ranchers or backyard livestock owners. It is a fact that wolves generally avoid humans, but they do prey on our livestock. I'd love to see any evidence that you have that wolves were widespread in California historically. But regardless the environment or habitat is way different than historical. Just as you insinuate that it is not feasible to have grizzlies in their historic CA range b/c it might aggravate the people there now, so is true for many rural people in the path of CA wolves now.@@MrDellasc
@@davidvalle3492 First off, I’m not for or against the wolves being in California. I stumbled up the video and I think it’s well done and is a fascinating subject. But I have a question for you, do you really think that wolves have NEVER been native to California, in the thousands of years before our European ancestors came to this continent? And I’d be interested in what evidence that you have that say’s wolves were never native to California. As far as the ranchers go, there is a blue print on how to do it, which is how the ranchers are doing it in the other western states, like Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska and Canada. As I stated in my first post, the wolves came here on their own, they weren’t re-introduced. Odd’s are, they may end up leaving or dying out.
@@MrDellascabout the grizzly bear reintroduction they actually still working on it they plan to do more work on it this fall or 2025 and they just got permission to reintroduce grizzly in north cascades that makes Grizzly reintroduction in California more possible than ever I think they gunna reintroduce grizzly bears in California in near future !
The ranchers get paid for wolf predation. On average coyotes kill 4x what wolves do and there is no compensation
In California, there is no longer compensation for a wolf kill. The pilot program ran out of money after the first year.
@@bradunderwood1733 the good news is that the California Cattlemen's Association is actively working with state leaders to ramp up this program even more. According to Beef Magazine from this year: "CCA says that it has been pleased to work with CDFW to develop “the most comprehensive wolf compensation program in the West” and that it would hate to see the program be terminated.
“Not only does that program compensate ranchers for their losses, it also helps further the department’s goal of implementing non-lethal wolf deterrence and the conflict deterrent effects of the program further benefit wolf recovery in California,” says CCA’s Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur.
CCA is actively encouraging state leaders to include funding for the program in this year’s budget."
Ranchers are suffering more economic losses from predatory corporations than wolves or coyotes.
@@nicsxnin6786 yeah the processors are smacking them around like crazy but they are obsessed with wolves because great grand pappy killed them
Who is the person responsible from introducing the wolf? Why are the wolf not treated as a non native species?
We get this comment a lot, and we always follow up with this question: Do you believe that the return of Rocky Mountain Elk to Modoc, Lassen, Plumas, and Sierra Counties was based on reintroduction as well? As you'll see in some upcoming episodes, the elk are back too. Which is so cool and could open up hunting opportunities once their populations get a bit bigger. Our point is that if you believe Elk could re-populate their former range in California, moving back down from Idaho and Oregon, why couldn't the wolves?
No one reintroduced the wolf’s, they came in on their own. The fish and game people believe they most likely came from one of Oregon packs. People forget how much open space California has. Most of the population live within a hundred miles of the coast.