Page 50 - DreamScapes Magazine | Spring/Summer 2022

PRESERVATION
In the Land of
the Wolf Watchers
A Prelude to Yellowstone National Park aТ 150 years
BY CAROL PATTERSON
Each spring in Yellowstone National Park where wolves flourish, vehicles bearing licence plates from across the U.S. and Canada arrive long before sunrise. These people are the core of a loose band of wolf watchers obsessed with Yellowstone’s canids. Many are on vacation, some are retired—yet all are keen—returning annually to record wolf activity that is shared in a regular newsletter read even when they return home.
50 DREAMSCAPES SPRING/SUMMER 2022
MUST TRY
Mark the sesquicentennial anniversary of the world’s oldest national park by learning about the earliest human residents at the Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center near Old Faithful or the Teepee Village near Roosevelt Arch.
My alarm chirped at 4:50 a.m.—late for many of the park’s wolf watchers—but I wanted to avoid a moose collision on my daybreak drive into the park. My host greeted me with coffee before leading our group into the lush, wide meadow of Lamar Valley, an area sometimes compared to the Serengeti because of its easy-to-spot wildlife.
Lining the road where wolves are often seen sat vehi- cles, fleece-clad adventurers huddled near spotting scopes, sharing stories and cookies.
Inside Offer
For two spring days I was invited to slip into this wolf- crazy culture, snuggling into a warm parka befitting a wolf fangirl. I lugged a borrowed spotting scope to a small rise where grey heads bent over high-powered optics scanning ridges most likely to conceal a wolf.
Icy wind lashed my face. Tears streamed down my cold cheeks as people milled about. Some wolf fans sported paw-shaped pins on their lapels; others donned wolf-emblazoned sweatshirts peeking out from under down layers.
Yellowstone Diversity
Nearly 100 years ago wolves vanished from Yellow- stone’s landscape. Back then, farmers felt it was necessary to protect nearby livestock. The last pack was killed in 1926. But in 1995 events changed. Packs of grey wolves from western Canada were relocated with a real- ization that wolves were important to the park’s ecosystem. Their presence started a cascade of positive ecological change, and ever since there has been a tourism boon.