Update 10/20: Crosscut has a version of this post.
What happened to the Olympic Peninsula after its wolves were hunted to extinction in the 1920s? There’s a fascinating new study (pdf) out on this question—the first of its kind as far as I know. As it turns out, eliminating this one keystone species sent shockwaves through the whole ecosystem. Some of the effects were felt almost immediately after wolves were extirpated and some are only just now becoming clear.
It’s a shame that reading articles like means hacking through verbiage that can feel as dense as an Olympic rainforest—it’s all “flow-induced shear stresses,” “fluvial erosion,” and “ungulate exclusion”—because the study’s content is incredibly important for lay people to understand. (Good ordinary language articles are here and here.) The upshot is that researchers have determined that the Olympic wolves were river-keepers, in an indirect but very real sense.
Here’s how it worked. Once upon a time, healthy wolf populations kept the native elk herds lean. But when the wolves were killed off, the elk populations spiked (with a colossal and much-noticed-at-the-time boom in the 1930s). The booming elk herds spent much of their time in the lush river bottoms, cropping the living heck out of new tree growth and hammering the seedlings of cottonwood, bigleaf maple, and even some conifers. Those young trees had stabilized the banks along the region’s fast-flowing rivers. And without new saplings and their fortifying root-systems, the rivers began to erode their banks, eventually channelizing and “braiding” as they spread out along the newly-unstable valley floors.
By comparing places where Olympic rivers are relatively free of elk (owing to hunting or other causes), the researchers were able to document substantial differences in the shapes and dynamics of the rivers. In fact, the researchers even hypothesize that the native salmon populations in Olympic National Park have been harmed by a river system that is less supportive of certain invertebrates.
If you’ve hiked along the wilderness Olympic rivers, particularly on the rainforest side, you’ve no doubt marveled at the clean meadow-like glades where old alders and bigleaf maples reach for sky amid grassy meadows. There are few young or intermediate-age trees. They’re lovely places but also symptoms, perhaps, of something missing from the wilderness. Maybe you’ve even seen the big Roosevelt elk there, cropping away at the green growth. You’ve certainly never seen wolves there as travelers in the Olympics once did.
Luckily, there’s a solution at hand. We should restore wolves to the Olympic Peninsula just as we have successfully done in the Rocky Mountains. If wolves were returned to their home in the Olympic forests, we might expect that the next several decades would mean a gradual restoration. Young maples and cottonwoods might thrive again in river bottoms, knitting stronger river banks, and improving the health of the salmon nurseries. I’ll bet a dozen (or a hundred) other things would happen too — wolf-connected effects that we’re not even aware of now.
The good news is that wolves are already returning to the state. But while gray wolves have begun a natural reintroduction of eastern Washington and eastern Oregon, it is unlikely that they will bridge the relatively developed areas west of the Cascade Mountains to reach the Peninsula. In any case, the Olympic wolves were probably slightly different from their interior cousins: they were likely a coastal subspecies of gray wolf, very similar or identical to the wolves that still range in British Columbia’s coastal regions. These northern coastal wolves, by the way, would make an ideal transplant population.
This study (pdf) of Olympic National Park comes from Oregon State University — the same folks who brought to light the fascinating ripple-effect of ecosystem restoration that occurred when wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park.
clew
On Isle Royale ( I think) the wolf/river effect was even more direct than the increase in elk *population*; wolves change elk *behavior*. Wolves there like to loiter in the brush and trees near rivers; therefore the elk don’t, and don’t trample the riverbanks.
Bill Kohlhaase
Thanks for the fascinating post, Eric. I’ve long wondered how those magnificent stands of maple and alder in open, park-like settings up the Hoh River rain forest evolved. Over-browsing was always on my list but the exact mechanism was a mystery. A related example of the cause-and-effect consequence of wolf (and other predator) removal was seen in Yellowstone. After wolves disappeared from the Park, beaver populations declined. The burgeoning elk herds competed with the beavers for young aspen and willows and the once-abundant beaver soon abandoned the area. This also affected water tables and riparian ponds which hosted ducks and other waterfowl (see “Jonas and the Beaver” in Alston Chase’s Playing God In Yellowstone . Since the reintroduction of wolves, aspens and willows have returned to many of the ponds and watercourses. There’s speculation that the relatively small decline in elk numbers wouldn’t result in less browsing. But there is some evidence that elk now graze in the open and away from cover to avoid predators. I have yet to see evidence of beaver in my Yellowstone wanderings (or studies documenting their return) but am sure they can’t be far behind. Thanks again.
Bill Kohhlhaase
I spoke too soon. The latest issure of the quarterly Yellowstone Science (no pdf available on the quarterly’s web site as of yet) has a large piece on beaver reintroduciton to the Park. While there are no firm conclusions regarding wolf-elk-beaver conditions, the researchers report that the beaver-aspen-willow state that existed on the Park’s northern range in the 1920s was replaced by an elk-grassland state, “possibly as a result of wolf extermination affecting elk numbers and behavior.” The bad news is that, though beaver populations are growing, the restoration of the wolf is not enough to restore the beaver-willow state “because of the dramatic changes that have occurred in stream morphology and function due to the loss of beavers.”
Alex
You know, I dont get why they dont bring the wolfs back right now. I geuss its cause they cant find a wolf speices that is enough like the origanil speiceis in olmypic national park.
Kevin Karr
I have a wolf hybrid that is no less than 90% timber wolf and 10% malamute from breeders in Idaho.I have papers on her family lineage that is impressive! Anyhow I just want to say how she loves beaches and rivers! She’s like a natural navigating quickly over river rocks, climbing steep terrain ect. It’s awesome to see!
Rick Sindars
There are still wolves in the Olympics some of us locals as well as a few visitors that have had the rare opportunity to see them deep within the interior of the Olympics realize that fact. No they didn’t get all of them they maybe rare but wolves still do exist in the Olympics.
Miles
I am a staunch proponent of wolf reintroduction and I think it would be fantastic to have them back on the Olympic Peninsula. I would caution, however, that considering such would not ocme without huge opposition from hunters and “sportsmen.” I live in Northwest Montana where this issue is very contentious but is swaying heavily in favor of those opposed to wolves and even set on demonizing them. There is a lot of misinformation and just downright ignorant people throughout Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and other places I’m sure. Just last night I saw a preview of a special report on the wolf issue done by one of the local TV news stations. One of the people they interviewed called wolves “government sponsored terrorists.” That’s the fever pitch this issue has reached here and I would suspecct that the sportsmen in Washington would have similar reservations about sharing the land with wolves. Here it all boils down to convenience. Hunters complain that they have to go further to find eld to hunt, or sometimes don’t find elk at all. The ranchers complain that wolves kill livestock, even though they are compensated by the government for any documented cases of wolf predation on livestock. They want to be able to raise non-native animals in an area which is habitated by native predators. Again, many people are put off by being inconvenienced by the presence of a predator. The pitty is, most hunters will tell you they’re the “true conservationists” when in reality what they want to conserve is unnatural levels of certain species (i.e. elk) so that they are easier to hunt. They disregard science and don’t care about the affect wolves have on entire ecosystems because they’re only concerned with big game that is huntable. Then, when you add politics to this, it really becomes a complex and contentious issue. I hope to see wolves reintroduced in all areas where they once lived. But I know that doing so comes with its human-imposed challenges.
Rick Sindars
There are locals here on the Olympic Peninsula that are well aware of the fact that we still have wolves in the Olympics. Most of the sightings as well as tracks are encountered deep within the interior of the Olympics.
Catherine Casian
I may have seen a wolf near the Hoh rain forest today. It could have been a very large fox but it was definitely a wild. It was running down the middle of the road and was along side my car so I got a very close up look at it. I’ve seen wolves and it looked like one. Your thoughts?
Rick Sindars
Please Catherine be serious I believe individuals on this page are trying to make credible comments.
Yes we do have large red foxes here on the Peninsula and yes there are a number of locals here on the Peninsula that know that wolves were never eradicated as so may claim they were. Yes we still have wolves on the Olympic Peninsula but most of the accounts are deep within the interior of the Olympics.
Catherine Casian
I’m sitting in New Mexico seeing your comment for the first time. I said I might have seen a wolf. I was being serious and you weren’t there. I lived in Forks Washington at the time and I wrote to find out the facts. Do you know for an absolute fact that what I said I saw, I didn’t see? What’s your empirical proof that in a forest so vast, a wolf was impossible to be anywhere near there?
G.P.
I believe I have also spotted two wolves crossing the Snow Creek road for a brief moment. I did notice they appeared to be larger than the coyotes I am familiar with and had a tannish brown tinge to their coats. Hard to judge size and distance from a moving car however. Jumped over the brush (and out of sight) in a wooded area effortlessly. I wonder if someone has already reintroduced them?
Tye
Your one of several who’ve seen what may be the “Ghost Pack ” around Big Quilicene watershed.
Rick Sindars
I know of individuals that I consider credible that have seen wolves deep within the interior of Olympic National Park as well as others that have found wolf tracks in the interior of the park.
I found a set of wolf tracks in the headwaters of Godkin Creek while hiking up to Crystal Peak in the early 1980’s and I followed the tracks for approximately 1,000 feet in distance. They were fresh and firm and had good definition to them. And they were huge. I was following them on a well worn elk trail. This area I’m referring to is approximately 24 miles up the Elwha River then two days cross country no trail other than game trails to the area I was in.
Tye
Their here, perhaps a beta testing breed I’m assuming. No more then 8-10 perhaps between Mt Constance and Colonel Bob Wilderness. Hope they make it I love them and one of the few hunters who believe their vital to a healthy ecosystem.
Rick Sindars
There are still wolves in the Olympics. They didn’t get all of them. I found a set of tracks at high elevation in the headwaters of Godkin Creek Valley a short distance from Crystal Peak in the 1980’s. The tracks were fresh, firm and had good definition to them and I followed them for approximately a thousand feet up a well worn elk trail. Although wolves in the Olympics are rare they are seen on occasion and hikers occasionally come upon wolves tracks deep within the interior of the Olympic National Park. Generally it’s only the locals that are aware of that fact. But there have been some outsiders that have seen wolves as well deep within the interior of the Olympics.
Steve Arnold
On January 2nd 2024 at 10:00 PM I saw a wolf pup crossing a dirt road and stopped stared back at my car. It was a few miles north of Lords Lake on a dirt road headed to Blyn. They are still there, I saw the light colored face pup with my own eyes.