Originally Posted by
Silver Creek
This science has been known anecdotally to those of us who live here for at least ten years. Probably more like 15. When I first started fishing here on family trips from 93 to 99, the streamside vegetation on all small meadow-type streams was grazed to less than knee high with the exception of the cottonwoods. Nowadays the willows often form full canopies and the beavers are returning (we got 14-15" brook trout out of beaver ponds on a creek that shall remain nameless this season). This is despite the fact that since 1995, the year of the wolf reintroduction, the following were drought and high-heat years: 98, 2000-2007, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016. This should have knocked the vegetation down and on some steep SW-facing slopes there are signs of heat/drought stress on plants (this is why the Gardner has been prone to mudslides for the past ten years). There are less elk to graze the bushes but more importantly they don't hang out for as long in the valleys. They're much more often on the hillsides where they are more surefooted than the wolves. I see this all the time even on the lower Gardner River where wolves almost never go. The elk used to hang out for hours in the stream bottoms and now they are much more likely bust across and run up on the hillsides. We're seeing a lot more deer in these riparian areas because they like the brush much more. They do a lot less damage, too, because they're ecologically "browsers" rather than "grazers." They tend to nibble and move on rather than eat everything down to bare dirt.
Trophic cascades are cool.
Owner, Yellowstone Country Fly Fishing
Head Guide, Parks' Fly Shop
Fly Designer, Montana Fly Company
Author, Yellowstone Country Flies and River Characters
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