The Wolves of Yellowstone by Kaelin

The Wolves of Yellowstone by Kaelin - September 2024 Scholarship Essay

My favorite non-traditional way of learning is reading about things that interest me and researching more in-depth in my own time. One topic that I have been extremely interested in over the past few years is the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone in 1995, and the reintroduction of wolves into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. I was originally introduced to this topic when I bought a book by Rick Mcintyre called “The Rise of Wolf 8”. This book is about the struggles and successes of the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone, the latter parts describe the individual wolves' lives. Upon completing this book, I quickly read the rest of the books in the series, and am awaiting the next book to come out this October. After I finished reading that series of books my family visited Denali National Park, where I learned about the lives of the wolves that live in Denali National Park and the surrounding areas. I purchased some books about these wolves and their daily habits.
About a year after that trip to Denali my mom brought home a newspaper with information on the reintroduction of wolves in Colorado. I was immediately interested in the information as I had read a little bit online about the reintroduction efforts in Colorado. The newspaper from Durango, Colorado was an opinion piece from a local who was avid about the reintroduction of wolves in the area and helped me gain new insights. I have also been on the lookout for information about the wolves in Isle Royale, Michigan. I have read multiple articles about the wolves of Isle Royale and how, because they are on an island, they are slightly inbred and have some abnormalities that aren't normally seen in wolves. I recently heard about the plans to reintroduce Mexican Gray Wolves back into Texas. I am extremely interested in all of the plans to reintroduce wolves into the United States, and how the general population, including people who have previously been against having wolves reintroduced (farmers, ranchers, etc.), have come to see the positive effects that wolves have on the wildlife and the environment, even though there are some negatives for those groups.
The wolves, especially in Yellowstone, have prevented overgrazing of the fields and forests by the elk, and other prey animals, along with restoring beaver dams and flowers that had become hard or impossible to find. The reintroduction of wolves has restored the area to the way it looked in the 1920s before the wolves were eradicated from Yellowstone. All of these positive changes make me even more interested in how the addition of wolves back into the American West can help improve the woodland areas and make them sustainable for generations to come.