HAS THE REINTRODUCTION OF WOLVES REALLY SAVED YELLOWSTONE?

By
Emily Gertz Posted March 14, 2014 POPULAR SCIENCE
http://www.popsci.com/article/science/have-wolves-really-saved-yellowstone
But then interest in environmental conservation took hold. Scientists
discovered that without wolves present in Yellowstone to hunt and kill prey,
the elk population grew so large it ate up all the young willow trees until
there were none. This affected the habitat of many other animals and plants
in harmful ways and the ecosystem became unbalanced. Or, as science puts
it, we caused a harmful top-down trophic cascade by removing an apex
predator, the wolf, from the food web
Some of the recent studies suggest that trophic cascades in land-based
ecosystems are more center-out than top-down, composed of many, many
radial lines of cause and effect, continuing to change over time. This shifts
our understanding of apex predators as keystone species whose presence
makes or breaks a healthy ecosystem.
At Yellowstone, despite the re-introduction of wolves, the willows are not
actually recovering as well as was hoped. One reason, Marris found, may be
that wolves don't actually scare elk away from their preferred feeding areas,
as earlier research suggested they might. When elk are really hungry,
they're going to take their chances with the wolves, Marris says.
http://rockymountainnationalpark.com/things-do/adventure/hunting
COLORADO ELK HUNTING rocky mountain national park.com
Hunting is permitted in Roosevelt and Arapaho National Forests but not in
Rocky Mountain National Park.
Elk that live in the National Park in the summer naturally migrate to the
warmer, lower elevations of the National Forest for the winter. The Park
permits no hunting within it's borders but relies on hunters in the Forest to
thin their herds.
Sharpshooters To Begin Reducing Elk Herds in Rocky Mountain National Park
Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on January 29, 2009
http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2009/01/sharpshooters-beginreducing-elk-herds-rocky-mountain-national-park
The need to trim the herds is fairly obvious -- Rocky Mountain, in effect, is
being over-grazed by the ungulates, so much so that beaver habitat, for
example, has all but vanished across much of the park.
Now, if wolf packs still roamed Rocky Mountain sharpshooters might not be
needed to remove about 100 elk this winter. But the natural predators long
ago were hunted to oblivion in and around the park, (although there still are

suspicions that a wolf or two from the Yellowstone National Park stock might
be lurking the mountains in and around Rocky)
State considers hunting in national park
subtitle
Park's cull of the wild
byline
By Jeremy P. Meyer
Denver Post Staff Writer
POSTED: 02/09/2007 12:03:05 AM MST DENVER POST
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_5189374
In June, federal park officials will release a plan on what they will do about
the elk. It will not involve a public hunt, which is forbidden by federal law.
"Culling is not hunting; it's shooting them," said Commissioner Rick Enstrom.
"It's a waste of a valuable resource."
The National Park Service, instead of spending millions of dollars for the cull,
could actually get hunters to pay to participate, Enstrom said.
(Collins is 60 each year for in state--- how many tags are given out each
season??)
In fact, 15 years before the law was written into the books, the animals were
being reintroduced to the Estes Valley because unregulated hunting had left
few elk. (it needs to be regulated give out less tags in RMNP)
Edward said state polls say 70 percent of Colorado residents would support
reintroduction of wolves.
Park biologist Therese Johnson said wolves would help solve the problem, but
because the park is so close to urban areas, their reintroduction could also
cause problems and be very controversial.