Originally Posted by
Terasec
according to that looks like the elk are the problem, not the wolves
Once the wolves were gone the elk began to take over. Over the next few years conditions of Yellowstone National Park declined drastically. A team of scientists visiting Yellowstone in 1929 and 1933 reported, “The range was in deplorable conditions when we first saw it, and its deterioration has been progressing steadily since then.” By this time many biologists were worried about eroding land and plants dying off. The elk were multiplying inside the park and deciduous, woody species such as aspen and cottonwood suffered from overgrazing. The park service started trapping and moving the elk and, when that was not effective, killing them. This killing continued for more than 30 years. This method helped the land quality from worsening, but didn't improve the conditions. At times, people would mention bringing wolves back to Yellowstone to help control the elk population. The Yellowstone managers were not eager to bring back wolves, especially after having so successfully ridding the park of them, so they continued killing elk. In the late 1960s, local hunters began to complain to their congressmen that there were too few elk, and the congressmen threatened to stop funding Yellowstone. Killing elk was given up as a response, and then the population of the elk increased exponentially. With the rapid increase in the number of elk, the condition of the land again went quickly downhill. The destruction of the landscape affected many other animals. With the wolves gone, the population of coyotes increased dramatically, which led to an extreme decrease in the number of pronghorn antelope.[
citation needed] However, the increase in the elk population caused the most profound change in the ecosystem of Yellowstone after the wolves were gone
Your 1000% right about to many elk in the nat. park and the balance was off without an alpha predator in there. No wolves means = to many elk / National park = closed to hunters both equal to many elk! This problem was created when they closed the park to hunting then rid the place of the wolves. HMMMMMMMMMMM sounds like the situation in Rocky mountain nat park!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Closing lands to hunting is the real issue here and it MUST ME STOPPED ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The whole issue was created by people trying to over preserve the beauty of it all when in fact they were destroying it from within.