Wolves play important role in ecosystem
I am amazed!
I am amazed that wolves returning to Yellowstone seem to be restoring the balance of nature in our first National Park. The wolf is helping to make Yellowstone whole again.
Scientists are also amazed! Yellowstone is working its way back to a changing but healthy ecosystem, thanks to the return of the wolves!
I am also amazed and humbled at the respect I am coming to feel for wolves as I learn more about their intelligence and their social behavior in their packs and their trainings for their young! Amazing creatures, amazing predators, too often maligned out of fear and myth.
Back to Yellowstone - Plants and animals and birds that have become rare in the park are returning! Young aspens, cottonwoods, and willows can grow again, and animals that use them as habitat are also coming back.
Why?
Because the elk are on the move again. Without wolves, the elk “lingered” along the streams in Yellowstone, eating the young shoots of aspens, cottonwoods, and willows before they could grow. Now the elk must keep “on the move” to make it harder for wolves to find them. (Also, hunters seem to find it harder to find the elk!)
Additional facts of interest are:
1. Wildlife experts say increased numbers of deer and elk have been discovered recently.
2. Verified complaints of wolf predations on livestock have gone down even though the population of wolves has increased.
3. Wolves are part of the reason that Yellowstone attracted more than 3 million visitors in 2011 and Glacier had nearly 2 million.
Imagine Montana’s economic tourism losses if we lost the “lure” of our wildlife predators by imprudent hunting! Let’s promote conservations, not decimation!
And perhaps someday, we humans can learn to live with wolves and respect them.
For a revised wolf hunt, please send comments by June 25 to fwp.mt.gov/hunting.
I ask for no trapping, only one wolf killed per hunter per season, and the same fees charged in 2011 for all hunters in and out of state.
Lois Drobish,
Kalispell