Comments on the restoration of wolves in Yellowstone

In the piece regarding the restoration of the wolves in Yellowstone, I particularly liked, or wanted to talk about, the section towards the end where Hettinger and Throop are talking about how the additional activity that would be required by humans to bring the wolves back into Yellowstone would initially detract from the wildness value, yet in the long run the benefits that would result from the initial decrease of wildness would be great. I feel there is a lot riding on this statement and it could be looked at in many ways. Sure, maybe in the long run, the restoration of wolves to Yellowstone would return the system to what it would have been had we humans not altered it in the first place. But, I have a hard time buying that further alteration can reverse years of affects. They seem to think, within a reasonable time frame, it is possible to bring a wild area back to its natural state through restoration projects. They do agree that human activity would always be part of the chain that led the particular system to where it is right now, but they believe it can be brought back to what it would have been if we never affected it. I don’t buy it. Who is to say that when we bring the wolves back, the system would be back to the way nature intended it. Who’s to say, now that we took the wolves away, and the elk prospered, and the aspen are no longer regenerating, and the beavers have declined, that when we bring the wolves back that the ecosystem will be anything like it would have been if we never took the wolves away. I highly doubt the entire system will balance itself back out so well to the point that the system will be “what it would have been had humans not altered it”. They claim that putting the wolves back would be like picking up litter in a forest to diminish the human impact on the forest. I think it is largely different and in no way the same. The numbers of species of plants and animals that are integrated into the ecosystem at Yellowstone, and that were affected by the removal and will be affected by the addition of the wolves, are much greater than the number of species affected by a piece of litter I pick up. I feel that the authors are making this idea of restoration look better than it actually is; and a lot simpler as well. There is no doubt in my mind that the removal of wolves did not benefit the natural environment, or the natural flow of the wilderness. But, I do have doubts that putting them back would return the system to what it would have been if we never took the wolves out.