The Trump Administration’s announcement today (Thursday) that it is removing gray wolves from U.S. Endangered Species Act protections will have significant impacts here in California.
This includes the ability to track the wolves as their population grows and to criminally charge people who kill the wild wolves.
Wolves have been protected under California’s Endangered Species Act since they began to wander into the state in 2011 from packs elsewhere in the West. The decision Thursday by the U.S. Department of Interior to “delist” the gray wolf from the federal Endangered Species Act weakens California’s efforts to manage its small but growing population.
Since 2016, California’s wildlife agency has received $1 million in federal funds to help pay for its wolf-monitoring program. That helps fund biologists to monitor the state’s single wolf pack in Lassen and Plumas counties and to track random wolves that wander into the state from time to time from Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The money also goes to programs intended to reduce conflicts between ranchers and wolves.
In addition to putting federal funding at risk, the loss of federal protections greatly hinders the ability of local prosecutors to charge a poacher with felonies, which include hefty fines and possible prison time. Environmentalists warn that may encourage more killing of wolves in California.
Under the California Endangered Species Act, the penalties top out at six months in jail. Three wolves have died in California under suspicious circumstances in recent years.
