Gray Wolf Research Paper

In 1960, the wolves who had covered most of the United States found themselves hunted; a hunt that would last until the 1960’s when they would be put on the endangered species list after their populations plummeted. The species of Gray wolf that was most common in the U.S. was almost hunted to extinction because complaints from ranchers and farmers that the wolf was a mindless, selfish, gutless killing machine. However, it is obvious through careful studying and monitoring that the wolves are a key part to their landscape, they keep down the deer and elk count and thus maintaining the balance in their ecosystem. Though it is true that their numbers have recovered slightly under the endangered species act, and due to this the population must …show more content…
(Gaia Packet pg.3) The Gaia Model consists of an outer circle with three parts the Physiosphere, the Biosphere, and the Noosphere. The Physiosphere is divided into the four ‘Classical’ elements and prerequisites for life; Earth (topsoil), Air (primarily oxygen), Fire (Energy), Water. From the Noosphere there are four more categories that further break down the spheres; Politics; information about power, authority, and entitlement. Economics; which is information about the exchange value of commodities, as mediated through the money system. Technology; information about properties of our physical and biological world, and Culture; information about values and priorities, the shared assumptions of societies.. Each piece of the model enhances and ties into the next, this is the base of the Gaia Model in a nutshell. The Wolves and the difficulties they face fall into two of the categories rather well, from the Physiosphere the wolves being hunted most effects in Earth, their plight and future tied to the health of the land they call home. And from the Noosphere, although it effects a little of each, politics best fits as their future is in the hands of those who are being …show more content…
A pair of (credentials here) did a study out of Oregon state university that lends scientific evidence to the argument that wolves need to be seen as an environmentally necessary top predator. “OSU researchers William Ripple and Robert Beschta have found evidence, both historical and contemporary, of significant impact from predation on the width, depth and meanders of the Gallatin River in Yellowstone National Park.” (Predators help shape…Oregon State University) Their research says that the predators eat the grazing animals, elk and deer, which in turn allows for the grasses and plants that thrive along the riverbanks such as willows, cottonwoods, sedges; to grow healthily thus maintain the sturdy edges of the river by staving off erosion and wear. Unprotected riverbanks that had their vegetation eaten by the herds will widen, the water level lowering as it does so which results in certain types of vegetation taking over. More dry and less water thriving species of plant such as shrubby cinquefoil and lodgepole pines will spread. “Animal communities across the food web — from birds to aquatic insects, butterflies, fish, frogs, toads and lizards — shrink or disappear along with the vegetation they depend on. Beavers are another casualty of the top-down “trophic cascade.”