The California Wolf Project (CAWP), a groundbreaking collaboration between UC Berkeley’s Rausser College of Natural Resources and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), brings significant opportunities for wolf conservation and community support in California. For Siskiyou County specifically, the program will closely study the Whaleback pack while developing practical solutions that benefit both wildlife and local residents. The partnership brings together experts in ecology, sociology, economics, and environmental policy to address unique challenges, as California’s wolves use larger habitat areas compared to other Western states. CAWP will work directly with landowners and Tribal communities to create effective livestock protection strategies and reduce conflicts between wolves and agricultural operations. By gathering vital data about prey availability and predator-prey dynamics specific to Siskiyou County’s terrain, researchers can make more informed wildlife management decisions. The project, supported by the National Geographic Society, represents a significant milestone since wolves began returning to California in 2011 after their absence since the 1920s. Project leaders Arthur Middleton and Justin Brashares from UC Berkeley, alongside CDFW’s State Gray Wolf Coordinator Axel Hunnicutt, emphasize that this initiative will serve as a model for how universities, government agencies, and local communities can work together to improve human-wildlife interactions while supporting both conservation goals and the practical needs of local communities.
“It is exciting to see wolves back in California, but there are a lot of questions about where they fit amongst a rapidly changing landscape with new challenges for agencies and livestock producers,” said Arthur Middleton, CAWP co-lead and Goertz Professor of Wildlife Management at UC Berkeley. “We hope our growing team can provide new support to those interested in and impacted by the state’s growing wolf population.”
“Given the wolf population increases we’ve recorded in the last few years and the management challenges that have resulted, there’s no better time for this partnership between CDFW and UC Berkeley,” said Axel Hunnicutt, the State Gray Wolf Coordinator at CDFW. “There are so many important management questions relating to the ecological, economic and social effects of wolf recolonization in the state that already impact California’s ecosystems and its people. The formation of CAWP is expanding our capacity to address these questions in earnest.”
CDFW Joint Press Release
The path of wolf recovery in California – the most populous and diverse U.S. state – has the potential to shape national, and even global, perspectives on wildlife restoration and large-scale conservation. CAWP seeks to develop a model for how to bring universities, government agencies and local communities together around the science and practice of improving human-wildlife interactions on a shared landscape.
To read more about the return of gray wolves in California or to report a sighting, please visit wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Gray-Wolf
To learn more about the California Wolf Project (CAWP), please visit wildlife.berkeley.edu/cawolfproject
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