Hot on the heels of my post last week about Big Game Forever’s video about the “out of control” federal wolf reintroduction program in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, here comes a propaganda piece in the Sunday Sacramento Bee about a lone gray wolf resolutely making his way toward California.
He’ll make it. And he’ll find a mate that’s been planted here – legally or otherwise.
Today’s story in the Sacramento Bee was predictable. Stories like these don’t just happen. They are planted to shape public opinion.
Remember last year’s Bee editorial on grazing and water quality in the Sierra? It followed a visit to the Bee Editorial Board by a man who dislikes cows in the forests and who wants to turn all California’s US Forests into National Parks to protect Sierra rivers and streams from contamination. That article was reprinted by other media outlets around the nation.
This one may too, as well. Read it by clicking on the Wolf on the Move graphic below:
First, note the placement of the wolf article: it’s in the new SAC PAWS (“where pets and people connect“) section. Note too, the use of personification by the author. This is no rogue menace to society: he’s alone, looking for food and a mate, homeless. His mother, B-300, is a pioneer. His father, OR7, is on death row.
The article goes to great lengths to paint a picture and influence the way you think about its content. Did it succeed?
What’s next? School kids will start following his travels and will write impassioned pleas to the Governors of California and Oregon respectively to bring him a wife and pardon his dad. [What do you think Jerry will do?] Someone will make a documentary about him.
As to his need to roam unimpeded by man, he’s going to need some help from state and local governments. California’s got a lot of public land and has already designated quite a bit of open space for wildlife corridors and habitat. But it’s not enough. Not yet.
Click here to refresh your memory on California’s Essential Wildlife Connectivity Corridors efforts.
No, the spread of wolves into California was foreseeable (in fact, we talked about it here over a year ago). That’s what happens when territorial animals are crowded and their food supply is exhausted or shrinking. A few days ago I wrote:
“Big Game Forever cites an early, carefully negotiated agreement with USFWS and others over the wolves’ recovery number threshold: 300. That number was surpassed about ten years ago. As you look at the maps, realize that the proliferation of wolves beyond the agreed upon recovery number has done what activist groups haven’t been able to do under the ESA (yet): distribute wolves into new areas and states.
That likely motivates at least some resistance to managing wolf populations. As I noted in a previous blog, groups have filed petitions that, if successful, would reintroduce wolves into states, including California. Read about that at “Dot-catalyst: Bob’s inquiring mind wants to know“.”
Although I am not aware that US Fish and Wildlife Service has made a decision, California Department of Fish and Game has already been working on a Wolf Plan in response to the Center for Biological Diversity’s petition to reintroduce the wolf. It’s like the article said, only a matter of time.
That said, perhaps damages will be confined to the livestock industry? As they say in England, “not bloody likely”.
Wolves do like elk, but guess what? They like cows, horses, sheep, llamas, deer, dogs, and cats too. And absent elk or any of the foregoing, wolves will still not go hungry.
So if their return is inevitable, what can be done? Here’s a start:
- Make sure you tell your elected representatives your opinions and if they don’t listen and begin to act, elect representatives who listen and reflect your values.
- Insist that a California population must be well-managed by the State to avoid conflicts with domestic livestock, protect other wildlife species, and that wolf populations are held to numbers which ensure that.
- Insist that mitigation for wolf impacts to livestock reflects full market value and doesn’t go away like the Defenders of Wildlife compensation program did.
- Insist that your county supervisors put a public lands and resources land use plan in place, that it contains policies on the reintroduction of wolves and other predatory animals. Require that they insist that all wildlife reintroduction efforts are coordinated with them.
And finally, take what you learn here and apply it to grizzly bear reintroduction. They too are coming to California. Count on it.
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