Fires & wolves yellowstone

Fires & Wolves: Yellowstone National ParkThe World is Complicated!!

Dr. Mark A. McGinleyHonors College and Department of Biological

SciencesTexas Tech University

Yellowstone National Park

• World's First National Park• A designated World Heritage Site and

designated Biosphere Reserve• 3,472 square miles or 8,987 square km• 2,221,766 acres or 898,317 hectares• 63 air miles north to south (102 km)• 54 air miles east to west 87 km)• 96 % in Wyoming, 3 % in Montana, 1 % in Idaho

www.NPS.gov/yell.planyourvisit/factsheet.htm

Yellowstone National Park Map

The Act of Dedication• AN ACT to set apart a certain tract of land lying near the headwaters of

the Yellowstone River as a public park. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the tract of land in the Territories of Montana and Wyoming ... is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people; and all persons who shall locate, or settle upon, or occupy the same or any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, shall be considered trespassers and removed there from ...

Approved March 1, 1872.

• Ulysses S. Grant- President of USA

Yellowstone National Park

• Old Faithful Geyser

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE8NDuzt8eg

Yellowstone Wildlife

Most Famous Wildlife

Over 3 million visitors each year

http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/visitationstats.htm

Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole Pine, serotinous cones

Yellowstone Fire- 1998

• Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames quickly spread out of control with increasing winds and drought and combined into one large fire that burned for several months.

• Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end.

• A total of 793,880 acres (3,213 km2), or 36 percent of the park was affected by the wildfires.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_fires_of_1988

Yellowstone Fire 1988

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAgP9fo3f7s

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/tlc/29316-understanding-fire-at-yellowstone-park-video.htm

Aftermath

Yellowstone Succession

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRcQVWSLIBc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdA9G0ceDo8

Fire Recovery

• Twenty Years After the 1988 Yellowstone Fires: Lessons About Disturbance and Ecosystems

• http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/files/norock/products/Romme%20et%20al%202011Ecosystems.pdf

• Yellowstone’s life 25 years after fires. Oct 16, 2013. The Durango Herald

• http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20131016/NEWS06/131019618

25 Years After the Fire

Reintroduction of Wolves• Although wolf packs once

roamed from the Arctic tundra to Mexico, loss of habitat and extermination programs led to their demise throughout most of the United States by early in the 1900s.

• In 1973, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the northern Rocky Mountain wolf (Canis lupus) as an endangered species and designated Greater Yellowstone as one of three recovery areas.

http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/wolves.htm

Reintroduction of Wolves

• From 1995 to 1997, 41 wild wolves from Canada and northwest Montana were released in Yellowstone National Park.

• As expected, wolves from the growing population dispersed to establish territories outside the park where they are less protected from human-caused mortalities

http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/wolves.htm

Reintroduction of Wolves

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDOx8ZOTfBA

Wolf Reintroduction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDOx8ZOTfBA

Results of Wolf Reintroduction

• http://sfglobe.com/?id=14064&src=share_fb_new_14064

What Does the Data Say

• The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho– U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service- 1994– http://

www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammals/wolf/eis_1994.pdf

• Wolf Restoration Continued– http://

www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/wolfrest.htm

Summary• The gray wolf, after being extirpated in the 1920s and absent for 70 years,

was reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and 1996. • Since then a three-tiered trophic cascade has been reestablished involving

wolves, elk (Cervus elaphus), and woody browse species such as aspen (Populus tremuloides), cottonwoods (Populus spp.), and willows (Salix spp.).

• Mechanisms likely include actual wolf predation of elk, which reduces their numbers, and the threat of predation, which alters elk behavior and feeding habits, resulting in these plant species being released from intensive browsing pressure.

• Subsequently, their survival and recruitment rates have significantly increased in some places within Yellowstone's northern range. This effect is particularly noted among the range's riparian plant communities, with upland communities only recently beginning to show similar signs of recovery.

Changes in Vegetation• A 2-3 fold increase in deciduous woody vegetation cover, mostly of

willow, in the Soda Butte Creek area between 1995 and 1999. • Heights of the tallest willows in the Gallatin River valley increasing

from 75 cm to 200 cm between 1998 and 2002.• Heights of the tallest willows in the Blacktail Creek area increased

from less than 50 cm to more than 250 cm between 1997 and 2003. Additionally, canopy cover over streams increased significantly, from only 5% to a range of 14-73%.

• In the northern range, tall deciduous woody vegetation cover increased by 170% between 1991 and 2006.

• In the Lamar and Soda Butte Valleys the number of young cottonwood trees that had been successfully recruited went from 0 to 156 between 2001 and 2010.

Changes in Biodiversity• Trophic cascades also impact the biodiversity of ecosystems, and when

examined from that perspective wolves appear to be having multiple, positive cascading impacts on the biodiversity of Yellowstone National Park. These impacts include:

• Scavengers, such as ravens (Corvus corax), bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), and even grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis), are likely subsidized by the carcasses of wolf kills.

• In the northern range, the relative abundance of six out of seven native songbirds which utilize willow was found to be greater in areas of willow recovery as opposed to those where willows remained suppressed.

• Bison (Bison bison) numbers in the northern range have been steadily increasing as elk numbers have declined, presumably due to a decrease in interspecific competition between the two species.[

Changes in Biodiversity

• Importantly, the number of beaver (Castor canadensis) colonies in the Park has increased from one in 1996 to twelve in 2009. The recovery is likely due to the increase in willow availability, as they have been feeding almost exclusively on it.

• As keystone species, the resurgence of beaver is a critical event for the region. The presence of beavers has been shown to positively impact streambank erosion, sediment retention, water tables, nutrient cycling, and both the diversity and abundance of plant and animal life among riparian communities.

The Debate ContinuesThe World is Complicated!!

• Legend of the Wolf. 2014. Emma Harris• http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.14841!

/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/507158a.pdf

• Rethinking predators: Legend of the wolf• http://

www.nature.com/news/rethinking-predators-legend-of-the-wolf-1.14841