San Diego Wildlife Advocates Pave Way To Restore Gray Wolves In California
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/feb/18/san-diego-wildlife-advocates-paving-way-restore-gr/?utm_source=kpbs.org&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=user-share
Originally published February 18, 2014 at 6:16 a.m., updated February 18, 2014 at 9:07 a.m.
San Diego Wildlife Advocates Pave Way To Restore Gray Wolves In California
Aired 2/18/14
Efforts in San Diego County to restore Mexican gray wolves in the southwest are paying off. A recent survey shows a steady increase of the animal in the wild.
Efforts in San Diego County to restore Mexican gray wolves in the southwest are paying off. A recent survey shows a steady increase of the animal in the wild.
The Mexican gray wolf population at a recovery range in Arizona and New Mexico, where breeded animals are released, has increased to 83 — up from 75 last year, and just four in 1998. The California Wolf Center in Julian is one of several facilities across the country working to breed the endangered animal, which is a sub-species of the gray wolf.
Above: This map shows the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction location along the Arizona and New Mexico border.
The group is also working to pave the way for the return of gray wolves to California by proposing state and federal conservation plans and educating the public.
"Mainly because they’ll sometimes get into conflict with livestock, and people tend to have very strong feelings one way or another about wolves; they either kind of love them or they don’t," said Lauren Richie, director of California Wolf Recovery at the Wolf Center.
Earlier this month, following a yearlong review, the director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Chuck Bonham, recommended to not list the gray wolf on the endangered species list. Instead, he advised listing the wolf as a species of special concern and that a prohibition be placed on killing of gray wolves in California.
The commission is expected to consider his recommendation and could act on it in April.
Richie said she’s puzzled by the recommendation because currently, just one gray wolf called OR7is meandering along the northern California border, and she believes the endangered species list is warranted.
"It’s kind of hard to get more endangered than that," said Richie. "But we do understand there’s a lot of scientific uncertainly. Usually when a department is looking at listing a species at the state level they’ve got to use a lot of scientific data to make that decision, and there isn’t really much because we don’t have a wolf population."
"If we could get another way to afford protections, that would be, I guess, a second best choice," she added.
More gray wolves are expected to move into California from the north as the population grows.
"It’s hard to predict how many could come," said Richie. "That really depends on the habitat and the prey base that’s available for wolves."
"We’re preparing for wolves to come back regardless of what the protections are because we think it’s inevitable and we see being proactive as a positive thing regardless of what the legal status is," Richie said.
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SSU Study Sheds New Light on Wolves in California
Research shows that wolves have been a part of California's cultural heritage for thousands of years.
A study recently released by the Sonoma State University Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) sheds new light on the widespread historical distribution of wolves in the state.
The study, conducted by the University's staff archeologist Michael Newland and faunal specialist Michael Stoyka, found linguistic and cultural evidence indicating that indigenous peoples across California had words for, and rituals involving, wolves.
ASC staff archaeologist Mike Newland explains the importance of the wolf study for the future of habitat restoration
"This was an engaging project for several reasons. The first is that the study has immediate applicability--the California Wolf Center is working with state and federal agencies to try to determine what the pre-contact population and distribution of the gray wolf might have looked like here.
The second is that big predators tend to be elusive in the archaeological record--generally, native peoples either didn't eat large predators or did so only under certain circumstances. You rarely find large predator bone on an archaeological site, and when you do, it's in very small quantities.
The third, and perhaps, for me personally, the most important reason this project was intriguing was its implications for habitat restoration. I study the pending impacts of climate change on archaeological sites. Each day that passes, we get more data showing that the more intact, and larger, an ecosystem is, the more likely it is to withstand the effects of climate change.
Increasingly, environmental scientists looking to reconstruct pre-contact habitat are turning to archaeology to finds out what kinds of plants and animal species were here.
The archaeological record contains a wide variety of animal bone, seeds, pollen, and wood charcoal--it's a cross-section of what was available at the time the site was used.
Our wolf study is a small piece of that puzzle. It's part of our efforts to help inform policy decisions that, over the next century, will affect us all.
No fewer than 15 of California's indigenous languages have distinct words for "wolf," "coyote" and "dog," and in the oral traditions of five languages, wolves appear as deities or a part of ceremony or ancestral history.
The wolf is a creator deity, for instance, in Southern Paiute traditions; sorcerers are capable of turning into wolves in Tolowa traditions; and three Northern California tribes -- the Karuk, Hoopa and Yurok -- used wolf fur in their dance regalia. Evidence also exists that some California tribes ate wolves as food.
The widespread distribution of evidence implies the wolf itself once had an expansive range, from north to south and from east to west throughout the state, says Newland. "In modern times we talk about wolves being ecologically important," said Amaroq Weiss, a West Coast wolf organizer at the Center for Biological Diversity, "but this research shows us that wolves have been a part of California's cultural heritage for thousands of years."
Previous research had compiled historical accounts of sightings of wolves in California by European explorers and settlers, and these accounts were from locations scattered widely across the state. But because it was not always clear that observers were familiar with, and could distinguish between, wolves, coyotes and dogs, the reliability of such accounts had been called into question.
The new study's linguistic analysis honed in on whether indigenous people distinguished between these three canids, and the study's examination of the role ascribed to wolves in cultural stories and traditions revealed unique treatment of the wolf -- quite distinct from roles or characteristics assigned to coyotes or dogs.
"This study sets a baseline for understanding that many indigenous people across California came into contact with wolves and also helps to identify additional research areas that would broaden our understanding of the historical distribution, role and cultural significance of wolves in California," said Newland.
Wolves were driven to extinction in California by the mid-1920s, but in late 2011 a wolf from Oregon, known as OR-7 or "Journey," entered California and remained in the state for 15 months, wandering throughout seven northern counties before returning to Oregon in March.
The dispersal of this wolf into California sparked efforts to gain full state protections for the species, in anticipation that Oregon's growing wolf population will result in more wolves finding their way into California.
A state listing petition filed in 2012 by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies resulted in the gray wolf being declared a candidate for listing; the state is expected to complete its status review and issue a recommendation on listing late this year.
This project was administered by the California Wolf Center and was supported with funds from the California Wolf Center, Center for Biological Diversity, Klamath Forest Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club California and Winston Thomas, Ph.D.
The full assessment can be found athttp://californiawolfcenter.org/downloads/Historical-Presence-Wolves-in-California.pdf
Contacts:
Images provided by the California Wolf Center.
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SSU Study Sheds New Light on Wolves in California
SSU Study Sheds New Light on Wolves in California
Research shows that wolves have been a part of California's cultural heritage for thousands of years.
A study recently released by the Sonoma State University Anthropological Studies Center (ASC) sheds new light on the widespread historical distribution of wolves in the state.
The report demonstrates the historic presence of gray wolves across California and comes as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is considering whether to protect the animals under the state's Endangered Species Act.
"The new research is relevant to the state's decision," said Lauren Richie, Northern California associate director for the California Wolf Center, "since it provides evidence of the widespread distribution of California's wolf population across diverse habitats before wolves were hunted to extinction here."
The study, conducted by the University's staff archeologist Michael Newland and faunal specialist Michael Stoyka, found linguistic and cultural evidence indicating that indigenous peoples across California had words for, and rituals involving, wolves.
WHY IT MATTERS
ASC staff archaeologist Mike Newland explains the importance of the wolf study for the future of habitat restoration
"This was an engaging project for several reasons. The first is that the study has immediate applicability--the California Wolf Center is working with state and federal agencies to try to determine what the pre-contact population and distribution of the gray wolf might have looked like here.The second is that big predators tend to be elusive in the archaeological record--generally, native peoples either didn't eat large predators or did so only under certain circumstances. You rarely find large predator bone on an archaeological site, and when you do, it's in very small quantities.
The third, and perhaps, for me personally, the most important reason this project was intriguing was its implications for habitat restoration. I study the pending impacts of climate change on archaeological sites. Each day that passes, we get more data showing that the more intact, and larger, an ecosystem is, the more likely it is to withstand the effects of climate change.
Increasingly, environmental scientists looking to reconstruct pre-contact habitat are turning to archaeology to finds out what kinds of plants and animal species were here.
The archaeological record contains a wide variety of animal bone, seeds, pollen, and wood charcoal--it's a cross-section of what was available at the time the site was used.
Our wolf study is a small piece of that puzzle. It's part of our efforts to help inform policy decisions that, over the next century, will affect us all.
No fewer than 15 of California's indigenous languages have distinct words for "wolf," "coyote" and "dog," and in the oral traditions of five languages, wolves appear as deities or a part of ceremony or ancestral history.
The wolf is a creator deity, for instance, in Southern Paiute traditions; sorcerers are capable of turning into wolves in Tolowa traditions; and three Northern California tribes -- the Karuk, Hoopa and Yurok -- used wolf fur in their dance regalia. Evidence also exists that some California tribes ate wolves as food.
The widespread distribution of evidence implies the wolf itself once had an expansive range, from north to south and from east to west throughout the state, says Newland. "In modern times we talk about wolves being ecologically important," said Amaroq Weiss, a West Coast wolf organizer at the Center for Biological Diversity, "but this research shows us that wolves have been a part of California's cultural heritage for thousands of years."
Previous research had compiled historical accounts of sightings of wolves in California by European explorers and settlers, and these accounts were from locations scattered widely across the state. But because it was not always clear that observers were familiar with, and could distinguish between, wolves, coyotes and dogs, the reliability of such accounts had been called into question.
The new study's linguistic analysis honed in on whether indigenous people distinguished between these three canids, and the study's examination of the role ascribed to wolves in cultural stories and traditions revealed unique treatment of the wolf -- quite distinct from roles or characteristics assigned to coyotes or dogs.
"This study sets a baseline for understanding that many indigenous people across California came into contact with wolves and also helps to identify additional research areas that would broaden our understanding of the historical distribution, role and cultural significance of wolves in California," said Newland.
Wolves were driven to extinction in California by the mid-1920s, but in late 2011 a wolf from Oregon, known as OR-7 or "Journey," entered California and remained in the state for 15 months, wandering throughout seven northern counties before returning to Oregon in March.
The dispersal of this wolf into California sparked efforts to gain full state protections for the species, in anticipation that Oregon's growing wolf population will result in more wolves finding their way into California.
A state listing petition filed in 2012 by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies resulted in the gray wolf being declared a candidate for listing; the state is expected to complete its status review and issue a recommendation on listing late this year.This project was administered by the California Wolf Center and was supported with funds from the California Wolf Center, Center for Biological Diversity, Klamath Forest Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club California and Winston Thomas, Ph.D.
The full assessment can be found athttp://californiawolfcenter.org/downloads/Historical-Presence-Wolves-in-California.pdf
Contacts:
Michael Newland, Sonoma State University Anthropological Studies Center,
(707) 664-2734
Lauren Richie, California Wolf Center, (443) 797-2280
Amaroq Weiss, Center for Biological Diversity, (707) 779-9613
(707) 664-2734
Lauren Richie, California Wolf Center, (443) 797-2280
Amaroq Weiss, Center for Biological Diversity, (707) 779-9613
Images provided by the California Wolf Center.
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