Lassen County’s Supervisors Stand-Up for County’s Livestock Producers on Wolf Predation

Lassen County’s Supervisors stand up for the county’s livestock producers on the California Deptartment of Fish and Wildlife Wolf Predation Compensation Plan. The supervisors addressed to the department why Lassen County Producers were not included in the meetings prior to the plan draft, especially since Lassen County producer are the most affected by wolf predation. The plan in its current phase will provide payments to livestock producers following a confirmed wolf kill by the areas biologist Kent Lauden. Future additions to the compensation plan, that was first brought to the table by the Lassen county board of supervisors, will mirror that of other states with similar plans, to include payment of presence of wolf activity near livestock grazing lands, and prevention compensation. As of this draft producers can receive payments for loss of livestock dating back to September 23rd of last year. Prior kills before that date are not able to be included, yet the supervisors urged fish and wildlife to press the matter to have the department legal counsel address this to the state legislature to have retroactive payments to producers for confirmed losses back to the initial presence of wolves in Lassen county. In future meetings of the dept of fish and wildlife the department representative committed to move forward with including Lassen county producers. Currently there are 4 to 5 wolves in the Lassen Pack with no confirmed kills since November of 2021 in Plumas County.