Come to Wyoming

[86Scotty]

Perfect.

[Dia]

Vistas like that are why I camp as much as I can. You don't see that kind of stuff from a hotel room window.

[macmcintire]

[macmcintire]

[macmcintire]

[macmcintire]

I thought you might find this fascinating. It is a video about the impact of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park.

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/how ... ge-rivers/

[Ford_6L_E350]

Very interesting - thanks Mac!

Mike

[rionapo]

By coincidence, there's a NY Times article today on this issue: http://nyti.ms/1gjFxez. Its bottom line: not true but it's not because trophic cascades aren't real. Instead, the elk (not deer, as the video says) had damaged Yellowstone beyond restoration before wolves were reintroduced. The author, a postdoc at Yale forestry, says this story creates a risk for scientists and environmentalists by reducing their credibility and that:

. . . by insisting that wolves fixed a broken Yellowstone, we distract attention from the area’s many other important conservation challenges. The warmest temperatures in 6,000 years are changing forests and grasslands. Fungus and beetle infestations are causing the decline of whitebark pine. Natural gas drilling is affecting the winter ranges of migratory wildlife. To protect cattle from disease, our government agencies still kill many bison that migrate out of the park in search of food. And invasive lake trout may be wreaking more havoc on the ecosystem than was ever caused by the loss of wolves.

The author is "pro-wolf" and his piece is an interesting read.

Don

[Dogmobile]

Agreed. The op-ed piece in the NYT is far more worth reading than the pretty fairy tale video with all the howling wolves. But the wolves are nice to listen to.

[macmcintire]

Don't you just hate it when truth gets in the way of a good story? Oh well, the pictures of Yellowstone still make the video worth watching.