The Wolves of Yellowstone
Fascinating article on the re-introduction of Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and the effects they have been having on the ecology.
Scientific American:
Lessons from the Wolf
bq. Bringing the top predator back to Yellowstone has triggered a cascade of unanticipated changes in the park's ecosystem
bq. Several scrawny cottonwood trees do not usually generate much excitement in the world of ecology. But on a wind-whipped August afternoon in Yellowstone National Park's Lamar Valley, William J. Ripple, a professor of botany at Oregon State University, stands next to a 12-foot-high cottonwood tree and is quietly ecstatic. "You can see the terminal bud scars," the bespectacled Ripple says, bending the limber tree over to show lines that mark a year's growth of a foot or more on the broom-handle-size trunk. "You can see that elk haven't browsed it this year, didn't browse it last year and, in fact, haven't browsed it since 1998."
Posted by DaveH at June 7, 2004 9:59 AM