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Although humans thought they were capable of managing the park by hunting, they were unable to mimic the complex web created by nature. When humans hunted the elk, they took the mature males with the largest antlers thus weakening the herds. When wolves hunted, they took the weak and lame, making the remaining elk stronger and more able. And furthermore, wolves changed the behavior of the elk, thus providing the opening for the aspens to thrive. No wonder the biologists recommended that if we were truly to save and protect the Yellowstone ecosystem for the future, wolves had to be reintroduced into the system.
So started one of the more dramatic environmental restoration stories. In 1995, wolves trapped in the Canadian forests were taken to the Yellowstone region and allowed to roam free. And the wolves have thrived in their ancient home and with them the biological diversity of Yellowstone is reviving. New stands of aspens and willows are growing tall. Beavers have returned to the areas where wolves roam, as they now can find aspens that are optimal for building dams. And as the thickets recover, they attract more songbirds and other smaller creatures each contributing to the web of life in the region. The recovery of the Yellowstone ecosystem by the reintroduction of wolves shows that we humans can reverse some of our worse mistakes and leave some areas on earth that show how beautifully complex natural systems can be for posterity to enjoy.
For more information, see http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?articleId=829&issueId=64 published by the National Wildlife Federation and Wolves in Nature (http://www.cof.orst.edu/wolves/) which studied the effect of the return of the wolves on the Yellowstone aspen groves. Another good article about the link between the aspen, the elk and the wolves can be found here: http://www.cof.orst.edu/cof/fr/research/aspen/declart/klamath.htm
For a scientific discourse on trophic cascade, read the paper, Trophic Cascades: the primacy of trait-mediated indirect interactions (http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2003.00560.x/full/).
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