Susan Dewar Promotes Conservation of Gray Wolves
Susan Dewar, Program Manager
Photo Credit: Neal Herbert, Courtesy of the National Park Service
Did you know that California has gray wolves after about 100 years of the species being extinct in the state?
In 2011, a GPS-collared wolf (OR-7) dispersed to California temporarily from Oregon’s Imnaha pack. At the time, Susan Dewar, an ecologist in our Auburn, CA office, was working on permitting a small dam repair project and was very surprised to see a gray wolf come up in the database search of species with potential to occur.
“The GPS path of OR-7 went directly across our small project area,” she said.
That individual wolf didn’t stay in the state for long, but by 2015, California had its first pack of gray wolves. As of 2021, there are three known packs in Lassen/Plumas and Siskiyou Counties as well as other detected individuals, for a total population of about 20 gray wolves.
As the population of wolves increases in California, conflicts between wolves and livestock producers are likely to increase. Direct depredation losses as well as potential indirect impacts (reduced weight gain, reduced reproductive success, and increased management costs) can produce significant economic losses to ranchers, and can at times be severe locally. At this time, California is the only wolf-inhabited state that doesn’t have a program in place to reimburse livestock producers for wolf-caused losses.
As such, Susan decided to found a nonprofit organization, the California Wolf Foundation, dedicated to reducing conflict with livestock producers, providing funding for implementation of depredation deterrents, and furthering research and education.
“As an ecologist, it’s amazing to witness the return of a species that was once extinct in California,” Susan explained. “However, the repopulation of a once-extinct species is never easy – it requires stewardship on multiple levels, and that’s what I hope to facilitate through the California Wolf Foundation.”
Check out californiawolffoundation.org to learn more and, if you’d like, support this mission as the foundation grows!
