The Importance Of Gray Wolves Of Yellowstone National Park

National Park Rangers have incredibly important jobs when it comes to the health of an environment. Park Rangers have the ability to cause considerable change to an environment in a positive or negative way. The role of the national park ranger is to “protect, conserve, and to provide for the enjoyment of our nation 's heritage” (Maciha). National Park Rangers know better than anyone that the most basic of changes can cause an environment, or more specifically an ecosystem to crumble. The most important member of an ecosystem is a keystone species because of their influence on all of the other organisms. An example of a keystone species is the gray wolf in Yellowstone National Park.
A brief history on the gray wolves of Yellowstone is that …show more content…
On one side, the people who believe the wolves should have the right to do as what they please because wolves are natural predators of the ecosystem inside Yellowstone National Park, and those who believe the wolves are too dangerous to have around Yellowstone. In John Weavers book, The Wolves of Yellowstone, he includes the National Park Service definition of what a national park is, “the primary purpose of administration of natural areas by the National Parks service is to preserve natural environments and native plant and animal life while providing enjoyment by visitors in ways which maintain natural conditions”. The wolves of Yellowstone have been naturally living there for thousands of years up until human involvement. Humans removed the wolves through hunting then humans reintroduced the wolves, and now humans are trying to re-remove the wolves from Yellowstone. Weaver explains a possible way to never allows something like this to ever happen again, “ Mission-oriented research involves determining the completeness of park ecosystems and developing management procedures to prevent or compensate for departures caused by human action.” Through intensive research, significant consideration to the environment and the ecosystem is a must when making possible changes. For the wolves, the Park Rangers and scientist should have a limited involvement in the lives of the wolves. Park Rangers need to understand the fine line of when to intervene or make a change and when to leave the wolves alone. These actions are not just for wolves but to every living species including; trees, bodies of water, the air, insects