Beautiful Nature of Yellowstone National Park - Essay Example

Yellowstone national Park Yellowstone national park is the national park in the U.S where many people visit every year. Conservationists, biologists and local business owners gathered in Yellowstone national park with other great personalities to commemorate 10 years of wolf reintroduction program. In the year 2005, wolves’ were hunted, captured in Canada, and brought into Yellowstone national park by defenders of wildlife service personnel with the main of trying to restore balance to a landscape where wolves’ presence has been missing for a long time. These wolves have done well and reproduced at a high rate. In this park, wolves prey on variety of species particularly the elk of the Yellowstone Park but will in some cases pursue deer, sheep, bear and other animals (Philips et al, 1996). Wolves in Northern Rockies have been a conservation success since 1995. The original Yellowstone wolves, wolves in Northern Idaho and other 20 wolves released in the Northern Rockies in 1996 have tremendously increased in numbers each year thus expanding their range into places where habitat and prey could favor or support them. Currently, more than 800 wolves exist in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. It has taken Yellowstone National park 21 years of strategizing and planning to get wolves on the ground. This was seen as a conservative move by Yellowstone management since the population of wolves has been on the decrease. Despite this reintroduction, ranchers expressed their fears that wolves would kill their sheep and cattle. In order to justify the seriousness of the reintroduction program, defenders of wildlife conservation team established the Bailey wildlife foundation wolf compensation fund that would be used to pay ranchers and other livestock owners the market prices for proven losses to wolves (Philips et al, 1996). The reintroduction program was meant to rescue the wolves because these animals are considered endangered and are at risk of extinction if not protected. The government of the United Sates under President Bush once announced that it was planning to kill the wolves that it had initially spend millions of dollars to reintroduce. The government believed that the wolves were adversely affecting the elk in Wyoming despite the fact that the numbers of elk in the area are always high. The State of Idaho rubbished this move by the government as crazy and misdirected and instead intended to manage wolves at reasonable level. They filed a legal suit in court seeking to block government plans to hunt and kill wolves (Mech, 2003). Reintroduction of wolves in the United States of America has received praise since it has been viewed as a success story. This program has measurably improved the ecosystem or the natural balance in the Northern Rockies and benefited elk, birds and antelope population in the area. It has also contributed greatly to the economy in that many visitors flock Yellowstone national park each year to see wolves and as a result, they manage to raise $ 35 million to the economy. Wolves are the main source of attraction at Yellowstone national park. Conservation groups supported the reintroduction program stating that wolves were decreasing given the fact that their genetic and geographic spread has not increased enough to guarantee their long term survival (Busch, 2003). Before the reintroduction program, biologists had predicted that losses to wolves would not be great. In addition, defenders of wildlife introduced projects that helped reduce conflicts with wolves including measures such as introduction of livestock protection dogs, aerial monitoring, alternative grazing lands, alarm systems, voluntary grazing allotment retirements and range riders (Smith & Gary, 2005). Grey wolves were reintroduced in the Yellowstone national park some ten years ago. At that time, there were few wolves in the park but with the reintroduction program, the numbers have been increasing tremendously as wolves continues to amaze biologists with a ripple of indirect and direct results in the entire ecosystem. The government argued that the wolves were causing depletion of deer, elk and moose. Thus it hinted that it was intending to kill them. However, conservation groups have proven that the numbers of elk are particularly high and not threatened in way as the government claimed. Thousands of gray wolves that used to roam in Rocky Mountains have been killed and eliminated in 1930s. This move led to listing of gray wolves as endangered species since they were about to be extinct were it not for the reintroduction program. In the year 2000, wildlife and Fish group announced that the objective of 30 breeding pairs of gray wolves in Yellowstone had been met. From this information, it was said that the population of wolf was recovered under the endangered species act (Mech, 2003). In 2009, there were plans to de-list wolves, which led to the killing of 258 wolves in Montana. U.S fish and wildlife group sued the federal government leading to protections being instituted again with a move to guard and restore wolves in the area. The question that people paused when the reintroduction program was started is that how will people and wolves coexist. For many people, they would be against the program supposedly being the ranchers and livestock farmers who are trying to guard their animals and livelihood from an increasing threat from wolves. In addition, the hunters would oppose the move to reintroduce the wolves since they focused on extending their hunting strips. On the other hand, the pro wolf advocates primarily consisted of wild life people who feared that wolves are not guarded by the federal government and that at the end; they would be mismanaged, hunted and eliminated once again. Scientists working in Yellowstone national park have for recent years claimed that wolves have rapidly increased and that there was need for them to be managed again by local strategies or programs and not the federal government. They argue that if they continue to be guarded under the endangered species act, the aftermath would be human and wolf conflict continuing to increase (Smith & Gary, 2006). Their point of agreement with wildlife conservatives is that wolves have little impact on elk population. They argue that the numbers of elk have not been affected or reduced but, rather, migration patterns of elk are changing as they try to escape and avoid areas populated by the wolves. In addition, they rubbish the ideas of the possibility of the emergence of bigger and more aggressive wolves. Protection programs should be put in place in order to manage wolf population (Busch, 2007). Biologists today argue that wolf predation has been significant enough to make the elk animals to distribute evenly in the area; this in turn has affected the vegetation and different species of wildlife. The last time the elk saw the wolves was in 1920s but with their reintroduction in the park in the last years, the elk have changed their survival tactics by being more vigilant. They move more than they used to do initially and that they do not spend their time in areas where they do not feel secure. They prefer places near a hill or bluff where they could hide from the wolves. Despite the wolves being a threat to the ecosystem of Yellowstone National park, they have played a significant role in changing the area. For instance, it is believed with the reintroduction of wolves, the coyotes and cottonwoods have returned, they are now in a position to perform distinct roles in that they stabilize the banks of rivers and offer shade, which reduces or lowers water temperature thus making the habitat good for trout and hence, leading to breeding of fish. References Busch, R. H, 2007, The Wolf Almanac a Celebration of Wolves and Their World. Guilford: Lyons. Mech, D. L, 2003, Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. Chicago: University of Chicago. Phillips, M, Douglas W, and Barry, O, 1996, The Wolves of Yellowstone. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur, 1996. Print. Smith, D. W., and Gary, F, 2005, Decade of the Wolf: Returning the Wild to Yellowstone. Guilford, CT: Lyons. 10 Years of Yellowstone Wolves." Nps.gov. Ed. Roger J. Anderson. Yellowstone Science, 2005. Read More