Learning ecology

We’ve moved camps to the other side of Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, near Baker City. This week is the first week of our ecology field course, and we’re working with a hydrologist from the Forest Service collecting data about the degradation of riparian habitat. It’s been really cool to get out in the field, and really interesting learning how ecosystems are so intimately connected.

Before wolves were removed from the ecosystem here, they hunted elk and deer. Now, without predation to keep them in check, ungulate populations have grown. They can graze without fear of being hunted, and as a result, they’re overgrazing aspen stands significantly. Aspen which previously would have grown into trees are stunted and don’t get above shrub height. And beavers build their lodges and dams out of mature aspen and other trees that grow along streams. So now beavers are having a harder time making dams, and they’re being trapped out of entire areas. Their dams allow streams to expand across a floodplain when water levels get high, and without them, streams are eroding at their own banks, creating deep channels that move too quickly and narrowly to recharge groundwater. Whole areas that should be flooded are dry because beavers aren’t here anymore. And now, cattle graze in these areas, further contributing to erosion and eating some of the species beavers rely on.

Everything depends on everything else. With beavers back in place, we’d see less flooding, more groundwater recharge, fields which wouldn’t need so much irrigation, fields where more grass could grow. Theoretically, it would benefit everyone in the long run, because there would be more grass for cattle, more for elk. But it’s still legal to trap beavers in Oregon, without limit, regardless of location.

This is what an ecosystem is. You move one thing, seemingly insignificant, and the ripples cascade outward, changing everything in their path. This is why we worry about upsetting natural balances. This is why we want the wolves to come back.