Ten years ago
today, the first of eight travel-weary wolves stepped
out of its cage and into Yellowstone National Park.
Those steps, the first known wolf prints in Yellowstone
in decades created ecological and social currents that are
changing the landscape in parts of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
The return of one of the region's top predators, now numbering
up to 900, may be altering everything from elk behavior to tree
growth to beaver populations. Ranchers manage their livestock
differently, and some face wrenching losses. Hunters now pursue
wolf-spooked elk.
The changes
offer a glimpse of what the future may hold for parts of
Washington, where it's only a matter of time before
wolves take up residence, biologists say. Oregon State
University forester Bill Ripple went to Yellowstone
National Park in 1997 looking for an answer to the decline in
aspen groves there. He emerged with a surprising answer:
wolves. A study of growth rings on the trees showed that
the youngest dated to the 1920s, around the time when
wolves were eradicated from the park. Ripple
hypothesized that the disappearance of the predators emboldened
elk, which then ate young, tasty trees with
impunity.
He and a
colleague followed up with research that found similar age
patterns in cottonwood trees, and evidence that willows have
had a resurgence in recent years. "As soon as we get rid of
wolves, plants stop flourishing. Soon after we bring
wolves back, plants are flourishing again," Ripple said.
If true, it shows how wolves can influence a broad web
of plants and animals. Beaver rely on willows for food and
songbirds live in aspens and willows, so their populations
might rebound. Animals that thrive around beaver dams could get
a boost. Already, a part of the park now hosts nine beaver
colonies where there was one when the wolves first
arrived, said Douglas Smith, the lead wolf researcher at
Yellowstone National Park.
The wolf's
arrival also has coincided with a 50 percent drop in coyote
populations, Smith said. That could help red foxes, which are
killed by coyotes. It also could increase populations of
rodents eaten by coyotes, a potential boon for hawks that prey
on mice. "We've grown accustomed to what the world looks like
without top-level carnivores. Here you've got a place where
they're all present, and it looks real different," he
said.
Not all
scientists are persuaded of the wolf's transformative effect.
Duncan Patten, a Montana State University ecologist, said it's
hard to separate the wolves from other factors, such as
drought and mild winters in recent years. Willows, for example,
may be rebounding because there hasn't been a harsh winter
forcing elk to dine on the woody brush, he said. "There are a
lot of things going on," Patten said. "The unfortunate thing is
too many people do what I call single-factor ecology and
point at the wolves as the only factor."
The fate of
elk is also in dispute. The park's biggest herd has fallen from
20,000 to 10,000 since the wolf's return. Smith said
wolves are just one factor, along with hunting, grizzly
bears and drought. But the decline has been controversial, as
hunters confront a dwindling herd and state officials point to
the wolves. Kurt Alt, a Montana state wildlife manager,
said he thinks the wolves are playing a critical role.
Still, elk aren't declining in other parts of Montana where
wolves aren't as concentrated, Alt said.
2007
update Margaret Soulen Hinson doesn't doubt that wolves
were responsible for the loss of as many as 300 sheep on her
central Idaho ranch last summer. She, her family and shepherds
tried everything from using guard dogs to sleeping overnight on
the ground with her sheep to ward off the predators.
Eventually, government agents resorted to killing 12 wolves to
try to stop the carnage. "I'll be honest, I think we can live
with some wolves. But certainly this past summer was too much
in loss and very difficult for everyone. We simply couldn't
figure out a way to keep the wolves out of the sheep," she
said.
The wolves'
quick spread has been a surprise to some. In 1995, the only
known packs in the western United States lived in the remote
northwestern corner of Montana. The animals were listed under
the Endangered Species Act. That year, in a move that drew
furious opposition from ranchers and state officials in Idaho,
Montana and Wyoming, the federal government began releasing
Canadian wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho, eventually
introducing 66 animals.
"When we put
those wolves in, we thought it would take a few years before we
had reproduction, and they proved us wrong because we had pups
that first year," said Joe Fontaine, assistant recovery
coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has
overseen wolf reintroduction. Today, between 850 and 900 roam
parts of those three states, Fontaine said. The wolf soon could
be dropped from the Endangered Species
list……
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UPDATE
2008: Gray Wolves: Off Endangered Species List
Matthew Brown,
Associated Press Feb. 22, 2008
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Gray wolves in the
Northern Rockies will be removed from the endangered species
list, following a 13 year restoration effort that helped the
animal's population soar, federal officials said. An estimated
1,500 wolves now roam Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. That
represents a dramatic turnaround for a predator that was
largely exterminated in the U.S. outside of Alaska in the early
20th century.
"Gray wolves
in the Northern Rocky Mountains are thriving and no longer
require the protection of the Endangered Species Act," said
Interior Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett. "The wolf's recovery
in the Northern Rocky Mountains is a conservation success
story."
The
restoration effort, however, has been unpopular with ranchers
and many others in the three states since it began in the mid
1990s, and today some state leaders want the population thinned
significantly. The states are planning to allow hunters to
target the animals as soon as this fall. That angers
environmental groups, which plan to sue over the delisting and
say it's too soon to remove federal protection.
"The enduring
hostility to wolves still exists," said Earthjustice attorney
Doug Honnold, who is preparing the lawsuit. "We're going to
have hundreds of wolves killed under state management. It's a
sad day for our wolves."
Plans
submitted by Idaho, Montana and Wyoming indicate the states
will likely maintain between 900 and 1,250 wolves for the
foreseeable future, federal officials said. Wolves have
increasingly preyed on livestock as they expanded into new
territories. At the same time, ranchers and wildlife agents
have made more wolf kills, which are allowed under the
Endangered Species Act in response to livestock
conflicts.
Since the late
1980s, 724 wolves have been killed legally. Roughly the same
number are estimated to have been killed illegally by poachers.
Despite that, the overall wolf population has continued to grow
at the rate of 24 percent a year.
"We've been
managing wolves pretty aggressively for livestock problems, but
there are still a ton of wolves over a big area," said Ed
Bangs, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who led the
wolf recovery effort. The wolf was nearly wiped out in the West
through a government eradication program in the 1930s that
included widespread poisoning of wolves. In the late 1980s the
wolf had just 200 square miles of territory around Glacier
National Park, in Montana near the Canadian border.
Wolves were
listed as endangered in 1974, and the government has spent more
than $27 million on recovery efforts in the Northern Rockies.
Since an
initial 66 wolves (eight at first) were reintroduced to
Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in the mid 1990s,
their population has grown rapidly. The wolf's territory now
covers an estimated 113,000 square miles, Bangs said. The wolf
will be formally removed from the endangered species list 30
days after the federal government's decision is published in
the Federal Register, which is expected next week. (editors
note. Grey wolves were delisted shortly after this article was
written.)
Meanwhile,
wildlife agencies in the three states have already begun
crafting rules for wolf hunts. Officials say the hunts will be
similar to those for other big game species such as mountain
lions and black bears. In Montana, state wildlife commissioners
this week adopted regulations for a hunt to begin this fall.
Idaho also is eyeing a fall hunt, and Wyoming plans to complete
its plans in the next few months.
Limits on how
many wolves could be killed in each state have not been set.
Public hunting could significantly decrease the size of the
wolf's range. It could also reduce the chance of wolves
spreading to neighboring states such as Utah, Colorado, Oregon
and Washington.
Environmental
groups critical of such hunts say the government should be
moving in the opposite direction, restoring wolves to areas
where they are not now found. The only other areas of the lower
48 states where gray wolves live are the western Great Lakes
and the Southwest. A population of about 4,000 wolves in
Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin was dropped from the
endangered list last year, while a reintroduced population of
dozens of animals in Arizona and New Mexico has struggled to
expand.
In a petition
filed Wednesday with the Department of Interior, Defenders of
Wildlife and the Natural Resource Defense Council argued new
wolf populations should be established in Maine, New York,
Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Washington and possibly New Hampshire,
Texas and portions of the mid-Atlantic.
Federal
officials said Thursday there were no immediate plans to
reintroduce wolves into other states or regions. However, an
independent wolf biologist said he would be "shocked" if the
animal again ends up on the endangered list.
"The last
thing any of the states want is for wolves to be re-listed by
the federal government," said Daniel Pletscher, director of the
University of Montana's wildlife biology program. He added that
tolerance of wolves has grown immensely since the species was
nearly wiped out.
2011
Update: Wolf population dips in Northern Rockies March 11, 2011
By MATTHEW BROWN
Wildlife
officials say the Northern Rockies gray wolf population has
decreased for the first time since the animal was reintroduced
to the region 15 years ago. A census of the endangered
species released Friday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
showed the number of wolves fell by about 5 percent in 2010, to
1,651 animals.
Fewer wolves
in Idaho accounted for the entire drop, as wolf numbers were up
slightly in Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington.
The decline is
set against a backdrop of rising political pressure to allow
more hunting of the predators, which have aggravated ranchers
and sportsmen with attacks on livestock and big game herds. The
number of attacks on cattle was virtually unchanged. Sheep
losses dropped sharply from 721 in 2009 to 245 last
year.
Please
answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper in
Complete, Quality and Correct sentences. 75 points total.
1. Tell
how much the population of wolves has grown in the past
10 years as a percentage change. (ex 100(# today /
# at start).
2. Explain
what question Professor Bill Ripple, an OSU forester,
went to Yellowstone to answer, and tell what he
hypothesized in his study.
3.Later,
Professor Ripple followed up his study with more research, this
time on Cottonwood and Willow trees. Describe what
Professor Ripple concluded from his studies.
4.
Returning wolves to Yellowstone has far reaching effects on
animal populations in the park. Use the data table to
show at least four animals whose populations are
predicted to gain or lose by this change to the park's
wildlife.
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Name
of Animal
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Ecological
Niche
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Gain
/Lose
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Tell:
Why Gain? or Why Lose?
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5. Explain
how the Professor's opinion from MSU, Duncan Patten,
differs from Bill Ripple's conclusion about the
wolves.
From 2005
6. Explain why
ranchers and state officials from Idaho, Montana and Wyoming
became so furious with the federal government.
From 2008
update
7. Now that the
wolves are delisted what are the states preparing to do that
angers the environmental groups?
8. How many
wolves were killed legally since the late 1980's,
9. How many
wolves were killed illegally in the same period of time And
tell who illegally killed these wolves??
10.Tell how
much money the Federal Government spent on the Northern Rocky
Wolf recovery program?
11. How were
the reintroduced wolf populations doing in The Midwest
And the Southwest?
From the
2011 update.
12. Tell the
population status of wolves in 2010 And what state
accounted for this decline.
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©
2011 John Schmied & Mike Reid all rights
reserved
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Chapter/Section 18.1 - 18.4
