Keystone National Park Research Paper

Wolves have always been a symbol of the wild, free in spirit and roamers of the land. These animals are considered majestic and protectors of the wilderness. They have always roamed the western United States, although their population has fluctuated over time. Over the past 10 years wolf reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park has been a controversial topic to those of the United States. As of 1995, wolves have been reintroduced into the park. This has come with some strong opposition and yet has prevailed. The future of the wolf in Yellowstone park is now looking bright, although not certain since there still are those who want them banished again.

“Restoring an ecologically complete ecosystem in Yellowstone requires the return of willows--and with them, beavers. There's a clear threshold for ecosystem recovery. Willow stands must be more than 6 feet tall, the scientists found. That height is important, says Marshall. Then willows are beyond the reach of browsing elk, and can serve as seed sources for new young willows. Once willows have returned, beavers will gnaw down a certain number of them to build dams. The dams will further slow stream flow, allowing yet more willows to grow. The results offer new insights on the role of wolf-driven trophic cascades in the Yellowstone ecosystem, says Hobbs. Trophic cascades like that in Yellowstone occur when predators--or the lack thereof--in an ecosystem change the abundance or alter traits of their prey, in turn affecting the next lower trophic level.” ("National Science Foundation", 2013)

Ed Yong makes very valid points on how the wolves of Yellowstone have impacted the overly populated elk herds. He has this to say about the herds; “Today the population stands at just over 6,000 down from 19,000 in the elk’s wolf-free heyday,” (ll57). This might seem like a terrible drop in the elk’s numbers, but it is actually a good thing. Yong tells us, “The large deer had run amok in the wolf-free decades, causing serious damage to the park’s trees,” (ll5-6). So in reality, while there are far less elk now, the trees can start to build back up again.

During this history class extra credit opportunity tour to River Bend State Park I fell like I learned a lot of very interesting information on not only American history, but also Seminole History. I also learned the methods that have been utilized in hopes of preserving the park in its natural state. It is well known that it will not be possible to get the park to be an exact replication of the way it was when the wars were taken place, because the park changed before and after those events, and we do not know the exact changes to make today. But nonetheless, the park is as close to as it was back then as it needs to be, and I thought that it was an amazing thing to be in such a well preserved meaningful location. I had no idea that the Seminoles were such a big factor in American history as well as the fact that they were the only Indian group to never surrender. The wars upon the Seminoles were not necessary, and America should not have taken everything from them, or killed so many of them. The Seminoles could have been a huge advantage towards America if we would have accepted them and learned their tracking skills, war tactics, and healthy living habits, rather than stealing from them and killing them.

I am taking a class called global environmental issues and heard about how reintroduction of wolves has had very positive impact in Yellowstone, but we did not go much deeper than just stating so.

These were all key factors to their near extinction. In 1974 the wolves were placed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), but were not protected for long. Many environmentalist agreed with this act because environmentalist knew how crucial this keystone specie was to the ecosystem. Without the grey wolves existence, the whole rest of the ecosystem would not function properly. Unfortunately, around the 1960s, the gray wolf population was basically extinct, which resulted in a huge controversy. Luckily, “In 1995, the first 14 wolves were introduced to the Yellowstone National Park to increase the wolf population”(Transplanted) that had been decreasing gradually. Over the years more Canadian wolves were introduced to the Yellowstone National park to increase the wolf population. This procedure was successful because the wolf population throughout the Yellowstone region was on the rise. The long term goal for the environmentalists and Yellowstone park rangers would be to have around 1,000 wolves roaming the region.

Wolves were first banned in the early decades of the 1900s, and since then the elk population has been testing their limits with their boundries, and where their supossed to go. they have been using the

Yellowstone National Park’s geothermal features, wide variety of wildlife, its history, and the volcanic activity make the park one of the United States national treasures. Known for its amazing views Yellowstone National Park is a beautiful park with amazing scenery and a fascinating history.

When the wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National park, the wolves’ prey decreased in populations, and the producers had increases in population. In The Importance of Predators, the Yellowstone Case, it shows that the Yellowstone valley had birds, bison, and beavers 150 years ago. Then in 1995, wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone after being killed in the 1930’s. These wolves ate animals such as the bison, whose population was starting to vanish in Yellowstone. This shows that due to the wolves’ reintroduction, bison was lost, which was one of the wolves’ main prey. Another piece of evidence is that the beaver population increased vastly during the wolves’ reintroduction in 1995. Beavers, which are not wolf prey, need willow trees

One of the reasons that the human population is challenging the wolf populations is because of lack of room to roam and to live. The wolves habitat is being destroyed because we need to build more homes and more shopping malls and more stores. There are also more and more hunters wanting to hunt wolves. There can also is lack of deer during hunting season. The wolves hunt deer and if the humans hunt them too, there will not be enough deer to go around.

Wolf introduction has happened to Yellowstone National Park. It has improved the ecosystem drastically, balancing it, and allowing some species to thrive and others to arrive. Yellowstone National Park has improved, and with that, more tourists tour there, giving the government more income. Vegetation has gone back to thriving, and birds that rely on it have thrived, too. However, Taxpayers lose a lot of money from wolf introduction. Some people think that wolves kill livestock, making human life there harder. But the beneficial effects outweigh the harmful effects of wolf introduction.

Yellowstone National Park has a very interesting history. One aspect of its history revolves around its ecological transformation shortly after the reintroduction of Canis Lupus, commonly referred to as the gray wolf. During the 1800s, westward expansion brought settlers to lands that housed the grey wolf. The flourishing of agriculture led to the demise of the wolves’ natural prey, so the wolves then began to prey on domestic animals. This change in predatory behavior incited the settlers to eliminate grey wolves from the vicinity. Thus, predatory control was already in place during the 19th century.

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) is one of the largest virtually intact temperate-zone ecosystems on Earth with 34,375 square miles of wildlife, vegetation, rivers, lakes, hydrothermal features, and geological wonders (National Park Service (NPS), n.d.). (See Figure 1). Yellowstone National Park (YNP) is the heart of the GYE. The park was created in 1872 and encompasses approximately 3,500 square miles of habitat protection and sanctuary in portions of Idaho (ID), Montana (MT), and Wyoming (WY) with the largest concentration of wildlife in the lower 48 states. Among these species of wildlife are bison (Bison bison). YNP is the only location in the United States (U.S.) where bison have continually roamed since the prehistoric era.

Biodiversity loss is becoming more and more popular in urban populated areas because of land use, pollution and other man made environmental problems, our environment is stable to support all types of life. but over the past years of us damaging the land along with soil degradation is having major environmental issues with habitat loss, these animals that were meant to survive in that type of ecosystem is either dying out or is forced to find a new habitat that's sometime isn't suited for them. The Keystone species is a species that may be small or large either way it has an effect on its environment this organism plays a role in its ecosystem and as the name implies Keystone species

45). Many recent conservation efforts have aimed at protecting these keystone predators because the loss of these species has the potential to powerfully alter the ecosystems in which they reside (Textbook pg. 47). For example, the gray wolf, a keystone species, has been a focus of conservation in Yellowstone National Park since their extirpation caused population booms in ungulate species and resulted in overgrazing of the vegetation (Textbook pg.