Natural Perspectives:

As environmentalists who are concerned about greenhouse gases and global warming, Vic and I conserve energy. But we wanted to take a driving trip to Yellowstone National Park, which was going to burn up a lot of gas. So before we left, we signed up with Terrapass.

This nonprofit company allows private citizens to buy carbon credits to offset their household and auto use. Terrapass then invests the money in clean, renewable energy such as wind farms. It also funds capture of methane on California dairy farms. I visited terrapass.com, took its energy quiz and found out how much carbon we generate. An annual Terrapass for our house and both cars came to a tad more than $100. We still conserve as much as we can, but we’re more comfortable with our zeroed-out carbon footprint.

Early June turned out to be a great time to visit Yellowstone. While the Southland was baking in triple digit heat, we watched bison and elk graze on spring wildflowers that were blanketed with a late snow. We found elk calves that were spotted like fawns, some sleeping where their mothers had hidden them, others frolicking in green meadows. We even came across a newborn moose calf resting close to the trail under the watchful gaze of its mother.

At West Thumb on Yellowstone Lake, we spied two river otters catching and eating fish. The fish were probably cutthroat trout, which swim closer to the surface than introduced lake trout. The latter are out-competing the native cutthroats but don’t replace them in the food chain. Lake trout swim in deeper waters, beyond the reach of predators such as river otters. This is just one more example of how introduced non-natives upset the balance of nature.

Vic and I had signed up for a wolf and bear workshop with the Yellowstone Assn. Our primary goal was to learn how reintroduced wolves were affecting the environment. Wolves were eliminated deliberately from Yellowstone in 1926 under the misguided perception that this would benefit grazing animals such as elk and deer. By the 1940s, there were almost no wolves left in the lower 48 states.

Wolves went onto the endangered species list in 1973. Decades later, a plan formed to reintroduce wolves into Yellowstone, America’s first national park. Members of wild Canadian wolf packs were tranquilized, collared and released into acclimation pens in Yellowstone in 1995 and 1996, then allowed to run free. With their pick of 20,000 unwary elk, the wolves thrived.

Wolves are affecting the Yellowstone ecosystem in surprising ways. Once the elk experienced being chased by wolves, they stopped hanging out in the willows around streams. As a result, growth of willows boomed. Many animals benefited, including beavers, Wilson’s warblers and yellow warblers, all species that live in the willows along streams.

Other birds and animals benefit from the wolf kills. Ravens and magpies lack the ability to open a dead elk carcass. But once wolves have fed on a kill, these birds can have the leftovers. Grizzly bears benefit by stealing freshly killed carcasses from wolf packs. This gives grizzlies an alternative to whitebark pine nuts and army cutworm moths, two of their food sources that are dwindling because of global warming.

Protected in this new territory, the wolves multiplied from 31 introduced wolves to today’s population of 443 in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. The reintroduction has been so successful that wolves were taken off the federal endangered species list earlier this spring. That put the management of wolves under state control. Wolves now can be hunted outside the park. Unfortunately, many of the ranchers in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming hate wolves. Ranchers decided that a total of 300 wolves outside park boundaries is enough, and plan to allow killing of 80% of the wolves in the area. Many wolves already have been shot.

A coalition of 12 environmental groups, including Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club, has gone to court to challenge the delisting of gray wolves. They want a national recovery plan for wolves that is based on biology rather than a deep-seated hatred of wolves. These national organizations could use your help in the fight to protect this iconic symbol of wilderness.

Prior to the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone, professional wolf biologists could spend their entire careers without seeing more than a half dozen wolves in the wild. But things are different in Yellowstone. It is the best place in the world to see wolves behaving naturally. Wolves are spotted every day in Yellowstone, not just by biologists and hard-core wolf watchers, but by casual tourists. However, the best way to see them is with a tour conducted by the Yellowstone Assn.

On our first day with Yellowstone Assn. naturalist Barbara O’Grady, we watched through a veil of falling snow as a black yearling wolf interacted with first two, then three, coyotes. The wolf busily sniffed the ground, possibly searching for a nearby den of coyote pups. The coyotes harassed and yipped at the wolf, occasionally nipping its tail. But a wolf, even a yearling, can kill a coyote. It was a dangerous game the coyotes played.

Later, we watched an active wolf den in the distance through telescopes. The whole pack participates in raising the young.

While the alpha male and female were out hunting with other members of the Slough pack, they left their sole pup with a yearling wolf as a baby-sitter.

In addition to spectacular scenery on this trip, we saw 18 different mammal species, an amazing number.

We’ll tell you about our adventures with bears in next week’s column.

 ”Decade of the Wolf,” Douglas W. Smith and Gary Ferguson, 2005, The Lyons Press, Guilford CT.

 ”Yellowstone Wolves in the Wild,” James C. Halfpenny, 2003, Riverbend Publishing, Helena MT.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.