[Carry_Okie]

To the last post I wish to add a point about the Yellowstone fire and elk forage. By the time of the 1989 fire, aspen cover in the park had declined by 95% simply because of over-browsing by starving elk. After the fire, the clones shot up new shoots where the remaining aspen had been. The elk browsed them down and killed them, in big patches.

The big problem was not the lack of wolves but the removal of the apex predator in the system: HUMANS, who had hunted the elk and wolves and built the biodiversity we prized by gardening the landscape to supply themselves with food and materials. People shaped that landscape, which is why when the first explorers arrived they thought it beautiful. It's this urban myth we have about "Nature" that is the real problem here, that causes us to believe in a self-optimizing system that has nothing to do with reality.

[Avoiding_Sulla]

Consistently write with the tone of 39 and I think you’d be happier with responses. Yes. I know how difficult. Pray.