How Wolves Change Rivers

As the local deer population exploded around here about twenty years ago, in part due to well meaning people feeding herds of over 100 deer through the winters, we watched our forests struggle until it was almost impossible to find young trees under 8' in height because they had been nibbled off by hungry mouths.

That many deer lured the wolves down to the area. Our wolves are part of the protected packs from Algonquin Park, although they don't read maps well, so they do wander well beyond the Park boundaries. 

While we still have plenty of deer, we also have wolves -- and their iconic music brightens our lives.  This film is a fascinating look at how the eco-system is interlinked, and how trophic cascades impact in ways we don't even imagine.  A trophic cascade starts at the top of the food chain, and rapidly runs all the way back down to the smallest link of that chain.  We see it clearly in this little four minute film, and we are seeing it now in our oceans, as the sharks are being depleted for the fin industry but that is another and at this point far more depressing tale, so let us here just celebrate the wolves that change our landscape and enrich our lives.  They have, over the years, received far too much bad press.