Why the West and Water Need Wolves

October 13, 2012 By: Erin Block

Regarding the challenge brought forth by environmental nonprofits over the government’s removal of wolves from Endangered Species Act protection, Mary Ellen Hannibal of The New York Times focuses our attention on evidence from studies of the Yellowstone packs on the integral part they play in an ecosystem, and what is in danger if they are lost. Beneficially impacting the environment down to streamside vegetation as well as fish populations, “the rationale that eliminating the predator increases the prey is shortsighted and ignores larger food-web dynamics” writes Hannibal.