Hear that howl of joy? It’s because gray wolves are coming home to California. Once extirpated from the state, with the last wolf killed in Lassen County in 1924, wolves have been making a quick recovery in the Golden State. Now, only 13 years since the first wolf came back to our state, the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) reports that 5 out of the 7 gray wolf families in the state have reproduced this year.

Gray wolves are recovering thanks to protections under the Endangered Species Act, but with constant threats to the law and to the listing of wolves under the Act, protections for gray wolves are iffy.

Amaroq Weiss, Senior Wolf Advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, joins the EcoNews to celebrate the good news and to talk about the long political history to secure protections for gray wolves.