Stuffing the wolves back in the bottle

Elk were nearly extirpated from Colorado in 1900

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Wildlife management must be a lot like trying to stuff a genie back in the bottle. Consider the recent, and reoccurring suggestion of reintroducing wolves to Rocky Mountain National Park.
The suggestion comes on the heals of the “elk problem” there — with the current elk count estimated to be over the number the ecosystem can comfortably handle in that habitat. That, in turn, causes the herd to be unhealthy and vegetation in the park and in surrounding areas to be negatively affected.
Scientist studying the reintroduction of gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park claim the returning natives have benefited the park there. The last wolf prior to reintroduction was killed in 1926. The wolves, reintroduced in 1995 have grown in number to 250 to 300 and have begun hunting and eating elk.
According to a Denver Post Story by Tom McGhee in 2013, A federal appeals court sided with Rocky Mountain National Park in a dispute with environmentalists who said that wolves should be reintroduced to control the elk population rather than leaving the task to volunteer marksmen.
Using the trained volunteers to help Park Service employees shoot and kill excess elk doesn’t violate a hunting ban in national parks, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday.
"In ruling on the suit brought by WildEarth Guardians, the court said rules governing hunting in the parks allow the killing of animals that are dangerous to humans or detrimental to the park. “Neither …. the hunting ban nor the exceptions to that ban are based on the identity of the party destroying the animal …. Nor does WildEarth satisfactorily explain why, if NPS personnel can shoot an elk without it being considered hunting, the NPS’s agents cannot do so,” the court said.
WildEarth Guardians carnivore protection program director Wendy Keefover said wolves naturally target sick and injured prey, rather than the healthy animals likely to be brought down by people who can’t easily identify ailing animals," wrote McGhee.
“All the court had to do was tell the park to at least consider the alternative,” she said. “Now we have this horrible precedent allowing hunting in the parks for the first time. Instead of wolves, we are going to have fences and sharpshooters.”The Park Service argued that reintroducing wolves wasn’t feasible, citing a lack of support from other agencies, safety concerns of nearby populations and the possibility of conflicts between wolves and people.
WildEarth Guardians sued in 2008, after the Park Service released a plan to send marksmen into the park to cull an elk herd that was destroying the aspen and willow. That year, 33 elk were killed. In 2009, 40 were culled and 50 in 2010.
A District Court judge upheld the policy in 2011 and the group appealed.
In an opinion piece in the Fort Collins Coloradoan in December of last year (2017), Benjamin Barstad, CSU wildlife biology student argued for reintroduction.

"Few Coloradans have heard a wolf howl. Although wolves were once abundant throughout Colorado and the U.S., government-sponsored culling decimated them. Wolves were hunted to near extinction because they were viewed as vermin that kill livestock and compete with hunters for game," says Barstad.

"Although these perspectives still persist, wolves are now protected under the Endangered Species Act. In addition to acknowledging their threatened status, we also value wolves in their own right. We know their impacts can be mitigated, and science is showing they play a critical role in sustaining our natural communities."

"Wolves are the top of the food chain," Barstad wrote. "Disrupting that link upsets the balance of predator, prey and plant communities. Without top predators to control elk populations, cascading effects flow all the way down to shrubs and grasses. Without wolves, the elk population grows uncontrollably, resulting in elk stripping the landscape of its vegetation, leaving no food or shelter for smaller species. This is exactly what happened in Yellowstone National Park; without wolves, the growing elk population devastated the willow and young cottonwood populations."

In 2010, wildlife managers estimated there were about 2,350 elk ranging through Rocky Mountain National Park east toward Loveland, including a resident herd of about 1,700 in Estes Park.
“The elk leftovers provide food for animals such as ravens, eagles, and bears. Wolves also scare elk from the streams. With fewer elk near the water, plants that grow there, such as willows, can grow taller,” according to the National Geographic Society.
“Benefits of the this new plant growth include more habitat for birds and more plant food for beaver,” according to William Ripple, a forest ecologist at Oregon State University as quoted in National Geographic.
Naturally, stockgrowers in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana are not real fond of the reintroduction (understatement, understatement, understatement) as they see them as a threat to livestock, household pets and perhaps even humans under certain conditions.
One of the most interesting aspects to this complex matrix is that Elk, were nearly extirpated from Colorado in 1900.
“Through restoration with Elk from Wyoming and progressive management, Colorado’s elk population is estimated to have increased to about 300,000 animals in 2002. Elk are likely at carrying capacity the habitat in some areas,” according to Colorado State University’s Cooperative Extension website.
The same source suggests that elk cause damage by browsing on trees and shrubs in orchards, shelterbelts, nurseries, ornamental plantings, etc...
“The increased population of elk are having a significant impact on regeneration of aspen seedlings, especially in areas such as Rocky Mountain National Park. The Colorado Division of Wildlife paid $90,000 -$190,000 annually from 1996 to 1998 for compensation for damage inflicted by elk,” notes the Cooperative Extension site.
So it appears we managed the elk so well that now we have different problem. It makes me wonder if 100 years from now, if we might not be pining for the good old days of the beaver trappers, free-ranging, hostile Utes, Comanches and Arapahoes, and devastating wildfires. Maybe we already are.

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