Grizzlies could once again roam California soil. Photo: Srikanth Sistu//Unsplash
The grizzly bear is featured front and center on the California flag, yet the apex predator hasn’t roamed the state since the 1920s. However, some California lawmakers want grizzlies to be more than a branding tool and reintegrate the animal into the wild.
California Senate Bill 1305 calls for developing a roadmap to reintroduce the bear. The bill, which originally aimed to support bringing the animals back to California, has been scaled back and solely calls for studying the feasibility of reintroduction.
Introduced by California state senator Laura Richardson of Los Angeles County and coauthored by Senator Akilah Weber Pierson of San Diego, the legislation highlights the benefits of grizzly bears on biodiversity and their historic significance to indigenous tribes.
“Their removal from California ecosystems contributed to cascading ecological effects that altered landscape structure, shifted species composition, and contributed to an overall loss of biodiversity in the state,” the bill reads.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s coverage of the bill highlights a 2025 study by Peter Alagona, an environmental studies professor at UC Santa Barbara, that suggests the state could support 1,200 grizzlies.
However, ranchers, who have already been complaining about the reintroduction of wolves to California, have been vocal in their opposition to adding grizzlies.
“California is already struggling to take care of the apex predators that we have now, and what’s happened with the wolves has woken people up to the fact that we don’t have enough prey for the predators that we have, and we don’t have the staff for (the department of fish and wildlife) to manage them,” Rick Roberti, a Sierra Valley rancher and president of the California Cattlemen’s Association, told SF Gate. “And wolves are nothing compared to the grizzly.”
While California hasn’t had grizzlies for more than a century, the black bear population has remained stable over the past decade. California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that there are between 49,000 and 71,000 black bears in the state. There were as many as 10,000 grizzlies in California before the Gold Rush.
Black bears are smaller and more timid than grizzlies. Despite the name, black bears and grizzlies can have similar colored, brown coats and be hard for the inexperienced to distinguish. Black bear attacks are extremely rare. Grizzly bears, on the other hand, are more aggressive, but even so, they only account for 1.5 deaths per year on average in the U.S.
The bill notes that any recommended protocols would “minimize the risk of conflict to human life and property.”
If approved, the bill requires the roadmap to be submitted by June 30, 2028.
