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To: Sacajaweau

Here is the logic for wolf re-introduction. I was curious to find out the reasoning even if it might be wrong>>>>>>
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WIKIPEDIA
Indeed, local industry and environmental groups battled for decades over the Yellowstone and Idaho wolf reintroduction effort. The idea of wolf reintroduction was first brought to Congress in 1966 by biologists who were concerned with the critically high elk populations in Yellowstone and the ecological damages to the land from excessively large herds. Officially, 1926 was the year that the last wolves were killed within Yellowstone’s boundaries. When the wolves were eradicated and hunting eliminated, the elk population boomed. Over the succeeding decades, elk populations grew so large that they unbalanced the local ecosystem. The number of elk and other large prey animals increased to the point that they gathered in large herds along valley bottoms and meadows overgrazing new-growth vegetation. Because of overgrazing, deciduous woody plant species such as upland aspen and riparian cottonwood became seriously diminished. So, because the keystone predators, the wolves, had been removed from the Yellowstone-Idaho ecosystem, the ecosystem changed. This change affected other species as well. Coyotes filled in the niche left by wolves, but couldn’t control the large ungulate populations. Booming coyote numbers, furthermore, also had a negative effect on other species, particularly the red fox, pronghorn, and domestic sheep. Ranchers, though, remained steadfastly opposed to reintroducing a species of animal that they considered to be analogous to a plague, citing the hardships that would ensue with the potential loss of stock caused by wolves.[3]


55 posted on 11/21/2013 2:17:43 PM PST by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: dennisw

Interesting. Glad you posted this from WIKI. It gives some context to the debate.


56 posted on 11/21/2013 2:55:07 PM PST by flaglady47 (When the gov't fears the people, liberty; When the people fear the gov't, tyranny.)
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To: dennisw; All
“Coyotes filled in the niche left by wolves, but couldn’t control the large ungulate populations.”

The large ungulate population could have easily been controlled by human hunters.

That was forbidden on the discredited theory that “nature” would be in balance if only humans were removed from it.

Fact: Nature is never in balance and is always changing. In the Americas, after the glaciers, the human population altered the ecosystem in many ways advantageous to them. Flux is the rule, balance an illusion.

Fire was an essential way to keep the ecosystem in the state that it was found by non-Indians. Preventing fires was another mistake from the basic assumption that “nature” was in balance.

57 posted on 11/21/2013 4:06:11 PM PST by marktwain (The MSM must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)
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