Why Can’t I Hunt Squirrels in Southern California?

September 27,  2018

Question: I am a new hunter and I am wondering why squirrel hunting is not allowed in Los Angeles and other counties. Is this a political thing? I find it hard to believe there is a declining population of squirrels, and I can’t think of any reason why hunting them would not be allowed. I would like to go out for some but it seems ridiculous that I might have to drive four hours for squirrels. (Connor W.)

Answer: In about two-thirds of California (including all of the northern counties and the Central Valley), it is legal to hunt tree squirrels. The southern counties (including a sliver of Kern County, as well as all of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego and Imperial counties) and the eastern counties (Mono and Inyo) are closed to squirrel hunting. You can find a map at https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=109005&inline.

We are often asked why there’s no hunting in areas where it seems squirrels are plentiful. In California’s southern counties, the squirrels you’re seeing are very likely Eastern fox squirrels, which do very well in urban, highly populated areas where hunting cannot be used as a management tool. These non-native squirrels have displaced the native Western grays that once inhabited the area. Western grays prefer forested habitat, which is limited in the closed zone and fragmented further by development, leaving remaining populations with limited habitat connectivity. https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=161159&inline shows the distribution of suitable habitat for the Western gray squirrel, which is consistent with the parts of the state where tree squirrel hunting is legal.

Based on these concerns about Western gray squirrel populations, the California Fish and Game Commission opted to restrict all tree squirrel hunting in the southernmost counties. If hunting were allowed, the native squirrels would be disproportionately impacted, so the restrictions are in place to help protect them.

I had no idea.  That seems odd to me.  What about trapping?  Does that still count as hunting?

At what point are you hunting game versus controlling pests?

I have lost whole crops of apples, peaches and pears to them bushy-tailed rats. No one cries when the naked-tail varieties go into the garbage can.