Western Ranching and Land Use Conflicts

California wildlife officials say they have stopped actively searching on the ground for two juvenile gray wolves from the Beyem Seyo pack in the Sierra Valley, shifting to remote monitoring after weeks of failed capture attempts. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife had earlier euthanized four pack members in October 2025—three adults and a juvenile—after what UC Davis researchers now call an unprecedented series of livestock depredations: at least 92 calves and cows killed or injured over seven months, more than all wolves in Montana killed in 2024. CDFW says the remaining young wolves had learned to prey on cattle, raising fears they would spread that behavior if they formed new packs, but Deputy Director Katie Talbot acknowledged crews could not get close enough to tranquilize them safely despite round‑the‑clock deterrence efforts using drones, bean bags, and flagging. The case underscores how gray wolves, protected under both California law and the federal Endangered Species Act, are colliding with ranching interests as populations recover and as the Trump administration has scrapped a Biden‑era plan for a first‑ever national wolf recovery strategy, leaving states to navigate the political and economic fallout largely on their own. Ranchers in Plumas County describe last summer as emotionally worse than the financial hit, while state biologists insist this pack’s behavior was an outlier compared with typical wolf predation patterns on wild elk and deer.