Yellowstone is a place full of wildlife and wonder. When visiting, you can expect to see things like stunning landscapes, bison, elk, and even wolves roaming free. While many people may fear some of the apex predators in the national park, like bears or wolves, they play an essential role in the ecosystem. In fact, wolves helped save Yellowstone's aspen. However, now they are facing a new challenge.
How Wolves Helped Save Yellowstone's Aspen
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You may be wondering to yourself, what in the world do wolves have to do with aspen or aspen saplings? As it turns out, a lot. Aspen happens to be a favorite food source of elk. Also, Yellowstone boasted quite a healthy population of elk. So, over time, the trees began to suffer due to "heavy browsing by elk." However, once wolves were reintroduced to the park, they began to help mitigate the elk population.
Fewer elk feasting on the aspen saplings gave them more time to develop. Thus, the trees began to recover. However, not everyone likes to credit the wolves fully with the elk population control. Painter, the lead author of a recently published study crediting wolves with a notable comeback of aspen trees in northern Yellowstone, argues that it is an oversimplified version of the tale.
In addition to predation by wolves, Painter also argues that a majority of the elk population died off in the 1990s, due to starvation and nasty weather. He then references a particularly harsh winter in 1997 that had major impacts on the elk populations. However, wolves did play their part.
Why Less Elk Is A Good Thing And What Is Threatening The Aspen Now
While the loss of any animal life is saddening, Painter and many others argue that the control of the elk population is a good thing. Wolves helped save Yellowstone's aspen by preventing elk from camping out in one area and demolishing all the saplings in that area. As the aspen began to recover, other species thrived. For example, apsen and willow strands are the perfect food and building materials for beavers.
Providing beavers with the resources they need in turn creates more wetlands. Additionally, aspen provides habitats to various creatures, including but not limited to birds and insects. So while the loss of elk life is sad, a balanced ecosystem is not. However, now Yellowstone's aspen are facing a new challenge...bison.
Cowboy State Daily shares that "bison are moving in on the aspen, eating it and knocking the trees over." Time will tell us how nature, and potentially humans, will deal with this new attack on Yellowstone's aspen.
