Canines keep it real
Wolves last roamed the Olympic Peninsula nearly a century ago. A new study argues the absence of these predators has led to dramatic and often destructive shifts in the area's ecology.
Will wolves ever return to the Olympic National Park?
If you've ever lived with a dog, especially a large active dog, you are probably well aware of the profound impacts your pooch has on your immediate ecosystem (aka the backyard). My dog Abbey is a great example. Her German Shepherd genes have endowed her with a strong prey drive, so not only do I never worry about cat poop in the garden, but I also know immediately when the neighborhood raccoon is fishing in our pond (the survival rates of the goldfish have steadied thanks to Abbey's diligent watch).
But can this localized ecological effect be applied to a much larger backyard, something the size of, say...the Olympic National Park? Indeed it can, say Oregon State University researchers Robert Beschta and Wiliam Ripple. The Seattle Times just ran a feature by science writer Sandi Doughton on the two ecologists' fascinating research documenting the effects predators have on the landscape:
It sounds hard to believe, but the research adds to growing evidence that key predators do more than simply keep prey species in check. Most famously, Ripple and his OSU colleague Robert Beschta showed that within three years after wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and elk populations fell, pockets of trees and shrubs began rebounding. Beavers returned, coyote numbers dropped and habitat flourished for fish and birds.
And most recently they've discovered a similar effect with the absence of wolves in Washington's Olympic National Park for the last 80 years:
Along one 3-mile stretch of the Hoh [River], not a single new cottonwood survived the ravenous elk in the last half-century.
"It's totally out of whack," Beschta said.
Reporter Chris Dunagan from the Kitsap Sun who recently accompanied us on a recent release of Pacific fisher in the Park, also discussed the study and raised the question of the importance of keystone species like wolves and fishers in a recent blog piece:
Efforts to reintroduce wolves to the Olympic Peninsula are on hold for the time being. But we have a lot to think about. What we can learn from the fisher may be much more than the idea that we should have a few more of the furry animals running around.
And though some scientists question the Beschta and Ripple study, at the end of the day, there is no doubt in my mind that wolves do have a profound effect on the world around them. And many of those effects are beneficial to the survival of other species, possibly even our own.
