California wildlife officials recognized a new wolf pack Nov. 17. The new Grizzly pack consists of a single breeding pair and a pup in the southern and southeastern corner of Plumas County, an area known as Clover Valley.
The announcement was a surprise to Rick Roberti, a Sierra Valley rancher and president of the California Cattlemen’s Association. He has been deeply involved in wolf issues throughout the region for most of the decade since the first California wolf pack was recognized in 2015.
“It came out of nowhere,” Roberti told The Plumas Sun in a telephone interview.
The Grizzly pack announcement comes less than a month after California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials killed four gray wolves in Sierra Valley. They took “the difficult step” of lethally removing three wolves from the Beyem Seyo pack after they had been linked to the deaths of 88 livestock, CDFW officials said. The “legal euthanasia” targeted a breeding male and female pair and a solo adult female. During the operation a juvenile male was killed accidentally, CDFW reported. They are still working to capture and relocate remaining juveniles.
In its 2025 third-quarter report of known wolves in California, CDFW names the Beyem Seyo pact among “past wolf packs.” It joins three other packs that have disappeared since 2015.
Pack total remains at 10
The Grizzly pack emerged from what were initially thought to be two separate wolf activity areas. It is active in an area the Beyem Seyo pack occupied until October 2024, CDFW said in a press release. By summer 2025, the Beyem Seyo wolves had moved east into Sierra Valley and were actively killing livestock.
But officials continued to receive reports of multiple wolves in the pack’s former territory. Summer monitoring showed that the wolves were part of a single, cohesive group. By late summer, a remote camera captured a wolf pup in the area, confirming that the pair had reproduced — an essential factor in classifying an established pack.
That leaves the state’s wolf pack total at 10 despite the loss of the Beyem Seyo pack. Five are in the Plumas, Lassen and Sierra county area. One is in Siskiyou County, one is in Shasta County and two are in Tehama County. The farthest flung California wolf pack is in Tulare County.
Wolves were busy reproducing this year. A total of 31 pups were reportedly born to at least six different packs, according to data gathered by the Center for Biological Diversity.
“The wolf is with us,” said Roberti. “We can live with that.”
Livestock depredations
After the demise of the Beyem Seyo pact in October, Sierra Valley ranchers reported no livestock killings for weeks, Roberti said. This week, however, a calf died in what appeared to be a wolf kill. That has not been confirmed by CDFW officials, he said.
Until it is, the recent incident joins 239 reported livestock deaths statewide in 2025 that were investigated as wolf kills. Just 175 deaths were confirmed and attributed to wolves.
More than 75% of the losses (137) were in Plumas, Lassen and Sierra counties. The Beyem Seyo pack was responsible for more than half of those confirmed wolf kills statewide, a total of 88, according to CDFW documents released this week.
California’s wolf management plan includes compensating ranchers for livestock lost to wolves. In 2024, the California State Legislature appropriated $600,000 to the program. The payment is based on the worth of the calf when it is sold, considered its peak weight.
“That’s plenty fair,” said Roberti — if it’s enacted. So far this year the state has not compensated local ranchers for their losses, he added.
“Nobody’s gotten any money for months,” he said. “The government moves real slow.”
When ranchers are paid for the loss of livestock to wolves, it only applies to confirmed wolf kills. Roberti estimated four to six deaths for every official confirmation of a wolf-killed calf or cow.
Meanwhile, wolf activity continues to expand. In addition to the 10 officially recognized packs, CDFW reported wolves in southwestern Modoc County and eastern Sierra County.
“They’re smart,” said Roberti. “And they are still here.”