SISKIYOU COUNTY — While the California Department of Fish and Wildlife touts distributing $3.52 million to ranchers hurt by the return of gray wolves, livestock producers in Siskiyou County. Who’ve absorbed more than $2 million of that total saying the program is little more than a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage that is accelerating into 2026.
The numbers tell a stark story: Siskiyou County has received the largest slice of the state’s Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program, accounting for over half the statewide distributions. Yet local officials maintain that even that substantial sum doesn’t scratch the surface of the economic carnage being wrought by a predator that enjoys dual endangered species protections and new data shows intensifying.
According to CDFW data released this month, the agency has distributed approximately $3.52 million through its three-pronged compensation framework covering direct livestock losses, “pay for presence” payments when wolves are confirmed in an area, and funding for non-lethal deterrents. The money has flowed primarily to Northern California counties where wolf packs have established territories in Siskiyou, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, and Tulare.
