Kent Laudon, Northern California Wolf Tracker

CRY WOLF

Wild •AND• Untamed

K E N T L AU D O N , N O R T H E R N CALIFORNIA WOLF TRACKER

KENT LAUDON HAS spent a lot of time sneaking up on wolf packs. For 23 years, he’s tracked them in Idaho, Montana, Arizona and New Mexico – and currently in Northern California. He’s clambered up sagebrush-covered hillsides and peered at them through binoculars. When their dens are located in thick forests, he can sneak in for a closer look. It’s all part of his job. Laudon, who works for the state’s Fish and Wildlife Department, is the field man for wolves in Northern California, keeping track of the numbers of new wolf pups to determine if the wolf population in a given area is increasing. Nowadays, Laudon gets help from technology in the form of trail cameras that can be mounted near a den. California has one known wolf pack. To find its location when it first entered the state, Laudon had to use old-fashioned tracking methods. Acting on a tip from a Forest Service biologist who spotted wolf tracks in Lassen County, Laudon was able to follow those tracks to their nearby den. The pack currently roams and hunts in a 500-square-mile territory that encompasses both Lassen and Plumas counties.4 continued on page 54

Photos by T. Rickman, courtesy of California Department of Fish & Wildlife

He placed radio collars on the parent wolves after trapping and tranquilizing them. That saved him from having to do more old-fashioned tracking as they moved from den to den. Over the past three years, the pair, by Laudon’s count, has had a total of 13 pups, with a new litter expected this season. The two radio collars went dead, so Laudon will be placing new ones on members of the pack. Laudon, who’s fully at home in the outdoors, grew up hunting and fishing with his dad in Wisconsin. When he was 16 he had a “wow, look at that!” experience when, out hunting with his dad, he saw a wolf chasing three white-tailed deer. Now, 40 years later, he not only tracks and counts wolves but works with ranchers to help them minimize the threat to their livestock. With help from federal officials and nonprofits like Defenders of Wildlife, Laudon has equipped four ranching operations with defensive equipment called “fladry.” It consists of colored flags tethered to an electrified wire running around the areas where livestock are kept. Wolves eventually figure out that the flags aren’t a real threat, but then the hot wire acts as a more imposing barrier. At approximately $5,500 per mile for the fladry equipment, it can get pretty expensive, but the state is picking up the cost, as well as helping install it. So far, it’s been pretty effective. Only two cows have been lost to ranchers using fladry equipment, and both of those cows were killed after they’d been moved outside fladry perimeters. Lassen County rancher Wally Roney is making the best of a tough situation by using fladry to protect his cattle. Before he installed the hot wire fencing, he lost some livestock to the wolves. Now the losses are down to zero, but with a “dramatic” increase in expenses, mainly the labor costs involved in herding his cattle in and out of the enclosure on a daily basis. He says that with these labor-intensive protective measures he’s now operating at a loss. Rancher Joe Egan runs about 500 head of cattle in both Plumas and Lassen counties. He’d like to take measures to protect his livestock from wolves, but with more than 20 miles of fencing to deal with, the fladry/hot wire approach is impractical. Instead, he gets what information he can from Laudon regarding the location of the roving wolf pack. When wolves were just starting to enter the state four years ago, the Fish and Wildlife Department held a public hearing in Yreka to preview its draft plan for dealing with wolf reentry. On the whole, there was a lot of thoughtful comment by the ranchers and others in attendance, and the beginnings of a dialogue between state officials who are charged with facilitating the wolves’ reentry, and those who will be most affected by it. Suzanne Asha Stone was on hand as the Rocky Mountain field representative for Defenders of Wildlife. She was there when wolves were introduced in Yellowstone Park 20 years before. Ranchers in Idaho, she noted, were naturally concerned about the impact those wolves would have on their livelihoods. Two decades later, through programs Stone and her organization have helped implement, nonlethal strategies have reduced wolf kills of livestock in Idaho to “near zero,” she said at the hearing. And that’s with a wolf population that totaled 770. “It takes a while living with wolves before people realize that their worst fears won’t come true,” Stone said at the meeting. •

Tim Holt is a longtime journalist, the editor of the quarterly North State Review, and the author of “On Higher Ground,” a futuristic novel set in the Mount Shasta region. He lives in Dunsmuir, and is an avid cyclist and hiker.

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After the birth of my youngest child, I launched myself into the life of a full-time college student, driving 45 minutes to school and working 20 hours a week. In my first two semesters, I got all A’s, but my home life was very rocky. 4 days after my second semester ended, my husband was arrested for child abuse. It felt like my life had ended.

I suffer from all five forms of recognized domestic violence abuse, but I didn’t let that stop me. I went back to college the next semester, and I was absolutely terrified. If it had not been for the excellent staff and faculty at Shasta College, I would not have gotten through the next two years.

I joined the Shasta College Student Senate and began working in Shasta College Food Services, where I found two of the best bosses I’ve ever had in my life. Denise Axtell and Ryan Newcomber took me in and helped me grow into the student leader that I am today.

I graduated with three AS degrees in the unheard-of time frame of 3 years and I am now transferring to Chico State University. Shasta College helped me to dream again after domestic abuse, and Shasta College launched the foundation of my career.

When people ask, I proudly say I got my start at Shasta College.

Leslie

Shasta College Knight, 2020

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