opinion

McClure: More wolves, species management are bringing balance back to Isle Royale

Changes in nature often take many years to be noticed, but with 15 wolves now on the ground at Isle Royale National Park – up from two just a year ago – we are already seeing benefits.

In this short time, the wolves, brought to the island from Canada, Michigan and Minnesota, are hunting moose and playing their role well.

As top predator, wolves are critical in the health of the island park’s ecosystem as they work at restoring the predator-prey balance. A study by the National Park Service and State University of New York (SUNY) confirmed that the new wolves are hunting moose, helping to better balance the skyrocketing population that has gone unchecked, devastating native plants and trees.

The decline of the natural wolf population and the growing moose population at Isle Royale is well documented: It has been the subject of the longest running predator-prey study in the world.

Over several years, the National Park Service looked long and hard at how best to address the imbalance of wolves and moose on the island. They completed a thorough environmental analysis, consulted scientists and asked the public what we thought would work best.

The solution is more wolves.

Each of the new wolves brought to Isle Royale have been tagged with a tracking collar, allowing park staff to follow their movement and monitor their behavior. This provides an up-close look at how the wolves are adjusting to their new home and the impact they are having on the broader park landscape.

The monitoring of the tracked sites by the Park Service and SUNY found that wolves are hunting beavers, which are plentiful, but these researchers also found that more than half of the wolf prey is moose.

The reintroduced wolves are hunting and traveling together, and they are forming groups, which leads to formation of “wolf packs.” This confirms what scientists originally predicted, and what was hoped for – that new wolves would adjust and feed on Isle Royale’s overly abundant moose.

And as winter progresses, they will likely continue to focus on moose as beavers and other prey become less accessible.

The progress we’re seeing at Isle Royale National Park contributes to a better understanding of the critical role wolves have in nature. We already know how important wolves are for maintaining healthy park ecosystems.

After they were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, scientists documented many positive impacts across the entire park landscape, both short- and long-term. The addition of more wolves at Yellowstone provided widespread ecological benefits including helping to keep the elk population in check, increasing food for smaller species and led to healthier stands of willow trees. These benefits took time, and the Yellowstone example remains a gold standard in wildlife management.

For Isle Royale, the restoration effort has just begun. To see wolves adjusting so quickly to their new home and doing what they do best – hunt – tells us that we are on the right track. And it further supports the science behind this effort and the importance of continuing with the plan to bring balance back to Isle Royale National Park.

Lynn McClure is the Midwest senior director for the National Parks Conservation Association.