The Restoration of the Yellowstone Wolves By: Allison Mayfield

 The Restoration of the Yellowstone Wolves

Yellowstone became the first national park in 1872, a time where mankind had yet to understand the complexity of an ecosystem. In the 1926, the wolf packs of Yellowstone were killed off due to the excessive hunting. Western expansion brought settlers and their life stock in direct contact with the wolf’s territory. The increase in agriculture decreased the wolf’s available prey thereupon the wolves started to prey on livestock. Feeling threatened many settlers decided to hunt down the wolves. Surprisingly, it wasn’t just the settlers that helped kill off the wolves, the park managers also were involved. This is hard to understand because the “Yellowstone National Park Act of 1872 stated that the Secretary of the Interior ‘shall provide against the wanton destruction of the fish and game found within said Park.’” With this thought in mind many saw the wolf’s killing of prey as “wanton destruction”. What people didn’t know back then was how everything is connected within an ecosystem, including the wolf. 

For nearly 70 years the wolves were absent from Yellowstone. Without the wolves hunting the deer and elk their population increased and the herds were not as nomadic as they once were. The herds settled for a less nomadic life because they were not on the run from their main predator. When the herds stayed in one area they gorged themselves on the vegetation causing a butterfly effect on the ecosystem.

When the wolves were fully reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1994 the changes seen were unimaginable. The wolves reverted the deer and elk behaviors back to their vigilant nomadic state. With the herds moving around more caused the vegetation to regrow. With the increase in trees more song birds and beavers were seen within Yellowstone. The beavers built more dams creating more habitats and niches for other river animals. The wolves also decreased the population of coyotes which gave rise to the rat and mice. With more rats and mice as prey, more small carnivores were seen like weasels, baggers, foxes, and even birds of prey like eagles and hawks. Even the bear populations increased because of the increase of berries.

The most astonishing impact that wolves had on Yellowstone was the geography. Because the vegetation was in poor quality the soil had started to erode in the wolves absence. The soil erosion caused the rivers to fluctuate in patterns and depths. But once the wolves were reintroduced the soil became stronger and the banks more stable causing a more fixated flow. 

The absence of the wolf population from Yellowstone will forever be a learning experience for mankind. Ecosystems are a vast web of connections between the mightiest predator to the geography of the environment. 

I would recommend watching the ‘How Wolves Change Rivers’ video it really puts into perspective just how much the wolves changed Yellowstone.

Resources: 

Wolf Restoration Article: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolf-restoration.htm 

Wolf Reintroduction Changes Ecosystem in Yellowstone: https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem 

How Wolves Change Rivers: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ysa5OBhXz-Q