Restoring Yellowstone’s aspen with wolves

In the citing paper

“Our results suggest that these published trends overestimate trends in the aspen population at large, affirming Ripple & Beschta's (2007) early acknowledgement that the 5T method does not provide a representative estimate of the aspen population response.”

In the citing paper

“While we agree that 5T sampling allowed Ripple and Beschta (2007) to document 'the first significant growth of young aspen in over half century', the occurrence of a height increase says little about the strength of the wolf-elk-aspen trophic cascade, which was the central focus of Brice et al. (2022).”

In the citing paper

“Aspen is one of several NR vegetative communities reported to have been involved in a trophic cascade (Ripple et al. 2001, Ripple & Beschta 2007, Ripple et al. 2013).Those reports have been celebrated as well as criticized (e.g., Kauffman et al. 2010, Eisenberg et al. 2013), in particular, for being an artifact of biased sampling (Winnie 2012, Kauffman et al. 2013).”

In the citing paper

“Because reports of aspen recovery derive from four watersheds that were selected a priori because they had shown growth (Ripple & Beschta 2007), not unlike 42% of the watersheds exhibiting growth just outside the park boundary, a concern is that a species-specific trophic cascade may require an observation of widespread growth.By contrast, a number of these reports may represent only localized”

In the citing paper

“Low densities of Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus canadensis) after about 2004 created conditions conducive for new aspen recruitment in YNP's northern ungulate winter range (northern range).”

In the citing paper

“The East sector was where elk densities decreased most rapidly and to the lowest levels in the early 2000s and where new aspen saplings first appeared in response (Painter et al., 2015; Ripple & Beschta, 2007).”

In the citing paper

“Browsing pressure was reduced and more spatially variable, and subsequent aspen studies reported new recruitment of aspen saplings (Beschta et al., 2023; Painter et al., 2014, 2015; Ripple & Beschta, 2007, 2012).”

In the citing paper

“On the YNP northern range, aspen saplings were rare during much of the 20th century due to intensive browsing by elk, but this began to change as elk densities decreased inside the park following wolf reintroduction in the late 1990s as part of large carnivore restoration (Painter et al., 2015; Ripple & Beschta, 2007).”

In the citing paper

“Ripple and Beschta (2007) and Painter et al. (2015) found that heights of young aspen were positively correlated with the presence of fallen trees.”

In the citing paper

“there is some evidence that approximately 10 years after willow (mid to late 2000s), aspen may also be releasing (Ripple and Beschta 2007; E. Larsen, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, personal communication).”

In the citing paper

“a release of aspen stems may be occurring in some areas (Ripple and Larsen 2000, Ripple and Beschta 2007, E. Larsen, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, personal communication).”

In the citing paper

“Within approximately a decade after wolf reintroduction, young cottonwoods and aspen, as well as other deciduous species, began to grow taller in various portions of the Northern Range, thus providing a new cohort of saplings [≥2 m tall and <5 cm in diameter at breast height (dbh)] and small trees (5-10 cm dbh) (Beschta and Ripple 2007, 2015; Ripple and Beschta 2007; Painter et al. 2015).”