What is a Wilderness Without Its Wolves?
For millennium, wolves have occupied nearly all the lands now designated as Wilderness in the western US, with the exception of coastal California. Yet today, fewer than two score of the approximately 540 Wildernesses west of the 100th meridian (not including Alaskas 48) can claim some number of wolves as residents and only a dozen or so harbor wolves in numbers sufficient to be considered sustainablein either the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Central Idaho Wildlands or Montanas Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. Arguably, the long-term sustainability of wolves in other Wilderness areas is at risk due to the limited security provided by those smaller, often isolated landscapes.
The Wilderness Act defines Wilderness as a place where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by humankind, retains its primeval character and where natural conditions are preserved. Simply stated, Wilderness is meant to exist with minimal human interference. Yet within the vast majority of Wilderness areas, the wolf, the apex species with profound ecosystem influence, is now absentan absence due entirely to the relentless killing by humankind.
We need look no farther than Yellowstone National Park to witness the influence wolves have on an ecosystem. The parks wolves were exterminated by the early 1900s, ostensibly to protect the parks favored elk herds. What followed was not surprisingan overabundance of elk which led to deleterious impacts to vegetation, particularly lower elevation riparian and willow communities.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/24/what-is-a-wilderness-without-its-wolves/
2naSalit
(92,009 posts)Phoenix61
(17,510 posts)Response to douglas9 (Original post)
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Towlie
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I'm just sayin', the latest thread is "Can we love animals and eat them?"
Life can be difficult for a rational carnivore.