Circle of Life
- ecoprotect
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Post by Andy Doku
The fallen leaves tell a story; the extirpation was completed in 1926. They disappeared without a trace. The next seventy years followed an ecosystem that slowly unravelled, highlighting the importance of balance in nature and life.
With the wolves out of the picture, the elk population quickly grew and in the 1990s that number almost reached 20,000. The imbalance between prey and predator affected the vegetation. Elks had no need to traverse outside of Yellowstone’s northern range. The elks would camp alongside the riversides and eat everything in sight: cottonwoods, aspens, willows, stripping down trees to nubs before they could ever mature. As a result, riverbanks began to erode without the tree roots holding the banks together. Beavers could no longer play their role, as they need willows to build their dams. This led to them nearly disappearing by 1995 with one beaver colony left in the entire Yellowstone park. The impounded fish and amphibians suffered too, and the birds that fed on them, lost their homes. The circle was incomplete without the wolves.
This phenomenon is called a trophic cascade, where the removal of an apex predator ripples through the entire food chain. Suzanne Simard discovered that this also affects the vegetation and trees, connected through underground tunnels of fungi, sharing nutrients and even warning each other of danger. Even a tree struggles with isolation without its network. An incomplete ecosystem creates more harm than good. On the other hand, some scientists believe other factors such as drought, increased hunting and bears caused this chaos. Nevertheless, what is undeniable is that removing one piece of the puzzle creates a void that echoes through the entire system. The central question now was how to restore balance.
After decades of research and public debate, with over 150,000 comments, the decision was made. The wolves would return on 12 January 1995. Fourteen wolves arrived, the process almost stopped the release by an injunction order from Wyoming Farm Bureau lawyers, however the court lifted the order. The impact was immediate as stated by Doug Smith, the biologist in charge of the project, ’It is like kicking a pebble down a mountain slope where conditions were just right that a falling pebble could trigger an avalanche of change’’. The wolves didn’t just control the increasing elk population but changed their behaviour and that of other animals. Herds of animals now had to stay vigilant on the move, giving vegetation a chance to breathe and flourish. Fifteen years later, trees were finally able to reach their full potential, the beavers, berries, bison and bears benefitted, and the willow crown volume exploded from 0.3m 3 to 4.8m 3. The wolves are still there today, their numbers of around a hundred have stabilised the ecosystem. The rivers run clearer, and the story of the wolves is an important reminder that everything is connected. Break the circle and everything suffers, complete the arc and life will balance its scales.
Bibliography
Yale Environment 360, ‘Exploring How and Why Trees Talk to Each Other’ (8 February
SUGi Project, ‘Trees Can Suffer from Loneliness’ (8 February 2026)
Wikipedia, ‘Wolf Reintroduction’ (accessed 11 February 2026)
YellowstonePark.com, ‘Wolf Reintroduction Changed the Ecosystem’ (10 February 2026)
ecosystem/
Ripple, W J et al, ‘The Strength of the Yellowstone Trophic Cascade After Wolf
Reintroduction’ (2025) Global Ecology and Conservation (accessed 10 February 2026)
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