Had the Hunters not already eliminated 90% of the Deer and Elk in California…..
YREKA
People let their frustrations be known about the habitation of gray wolves in Siskiyou County at the Jan. 19 Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors meeting.The county’s first documented wolf pack was revealed by California Department of Fish and Wildlife in August. Later in the year, CDFW reported a calf that had been killed, and the kill was possibly from a wolf, according to a livestock depredation report that was released by the agency on Dec. 18, 2015.CDFW, along with numerous stakeholders, created a draft Conservation Plan for Gray Wolves in California that was released on Dec. 2, 2015. CDFW is accepting public comment about the plan until Feb. 15. A meeting will take place in Yreka at the Miner’s Inn Convention Center tonight, for the public to give their viewpoints regarding the draft. The gray wolf is protected under the California Endangered Species Act.The draft was formed to develop a strategy to conserve wolf habitat and to make co-existence with the wolves possible. Ranchers in Siskiyou County have expressed trepidation over the gray wolf’s presence in the county, and a number of people expressed their concerns at the meeting on Tuesday.“There are a lot of facts about these wolves that we will never know and there are a lot of assumptions that we will never know. I can’t represent anyone but myself, but I have a lot of friends that have decided they are gonna take this on their own. I appreciate the board taking the time and letting Pat work on this issue. This situation is major, and we may have citizens in trouble by the end of this,” one speaker said.Former Ag Commissioner Patrick Griffin is working with the county as an independent contractor. He spoke to the county about the draft plan, and he gave his opinion regarding the matter. Griffin explained that the individual ranchers have a right to apply for benefits if they are available, he thought that the county should be able to get funding through state legislature to respond to the problem.“There are lots of challenges, one of the problems for ranchers in the area is knowing where the wolves are. No way a rancher could know, and some ranchers are opposed to having collars on the wolves. It’d be nice if we could make changes to the plan, but not sure how well that will go. [CDFW] has all of these strategies for the California wolf population to manage livestock conflict and develop outreach with affected parties while also conducting scientifically based surveys. Anyway, the problem that we have in California – that is unlike most of the states – is that we do not have a biomass space for wolves,” Griffin said.Griffin, District 5 Supervisor Ray Haupt, and District 3 Supervisor Michael Kobseff discussed at length the issue of California’s low elk and deer populations. There was also talk of how the wolf population might affect the hunting season. The members also discussed the cost involved with the loss of cattle
Source: Public weighs in on the wolf – News – Siskiyou Daily News, Yreka, CA – Yreka, CA