Living with Bambi

US Route 20 originates in Kenmore Square, Boston, and proceeds westward over 2,300 miles to the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park. If you invest five days of driving, you can make the trip that took early explorers up to half a year.

The park, comprising nearly 3,500 square miles, is situated on the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano in North America. As a result, it offers many geothermal features such as geysers (think Old Faithful), hot springs, fumaroles, and mudpots.

It is also home to 4,000 bison (American buffalo) and 20,000 elk, large herds which present huge pressure to the ecosystem. These ungulates (hooved animals) compete for grasses, bark, and leaves, and have actually changed the appearance of Yellowstone. This is largely due to the interventions of man as we, perhaps answering deep tribal fears, exterminated the only significant predator in the park – the grey wolf.

To hear the National Park Service tell it, “By the mid-1900s, wolves had been almost entirely eliminated from the 48 states.”

While farmers and ranchers and park game managers initially thought this a good thing, shockingly, we found that removing a natural predator cannot be done without effect.

As elk and bison stripped the river banks of shoots and leaves and grasses, the natural willow groves were decimated. Beaver populations plummeted and their dams disappeared. River banks collapsed during flood season and river courses straightened as the flow increased. Species of fish and songbirds declined as the biodiversity of the ecosystem became less robust. The ungulate herds became less healthy as starvation and disease ravaged their ranks.

Finally coming to their senses, park managers determined in the early 1990s to reintroduce the wolf population. Not without controversy (hunting outfitters and neighboring ranchers were staunchly opposed), a small number of Canadian wolves were captured and released into the park in 1994 and 1995. Initially numbering only 15-20 wolves, the several packs now total about 450.

In the nearly twenty years since this experiment commenced, what have we seen? First, the bison and elk herds have been trimmed and are, overall, much healthier. The wolves prey on the sick and the weak: only the strong survive. While this could be considered very tough love, the bison and elk are the better for it.

But more unexpectedly, the ecosystem itself has become healthier. The willow groves have rebounded and river banks solidified by trees and grasses and other plants. The rivers themselves have resumed their lazy, more curvaceous course. Beavers have returned with their dams creating pools, friendly conditions for fish and amphibians. Songbirds once again nest in the willows.

The park is, overall, much more balanced and healthy than it was twenty years ago. All due to the reintroduction of a feared predator.

What does this augur for our highly populated eastern regions? It is not likely that folks will be agitating for the return of wolves and cougars to Boston and Foxboro and the like. But we will pay the price.

Local homeowners are familiar with having their shrubbery stripped by deer during a hard winter. The deer herd itself suffers from malnutrition and disease. Anyone who has collided with a deer rues the damage to their car and mourns the poor animal they crippled or killed.

What’s the answer? Perhaps only to keep an open mind regarding human predation of the deer herd. Those few who choose to hunt are providing a service that we won’t allow wild predators to perform. We might consider the idea of harvesting deer and donating the venison to homeless shelters.

The lesson from Yellowstone is that predation, from wolves or otherwise, is necessary for a healthy ecosystem. Man’s intervention has been historically unwise. Let’s try to do better.