In the near future the distinct howl of wolf packs will once again be heard across Isle Royale.
On June 8, Phyllis Green, Isle Royale National Park superintendent and Mark Romanski, Isle Royale National Park chief of natural resources, announced that over a three- to five-year period the National Park Service (NPS) would introduce 20 to 30 wolves to the island.
This is the historical number of wolves that roamed the island for most of their approximately 65-year history on Isle Royale.
The decision to add wolves wasn’t made lightly. The Park Service considered three options: Do nothing and let the wolves become extinct; re-introduce new wolves to enhance the breeding population; or, restore wolves after the current population goes extinct.
As far back as April 9, 2014, the National Park Service said it would “Respond to Isle Royale’s currently low wolf population through a comprehensive planning process that considers management of wolves, moose, and vegetation on the island ….the park will develop a management plan addressing the many complex factors that affect persistence of Isle Royale wolves and their role on the island ecosystem, including relationships with moose (their preferred prey), the condition of island vegetation, and the effects of ongoing climate change.”
At that time there were nine wolves, but researchers had found that those remaining wolves were subject to inbreeding, and because of that they were more susceptible to disease. Inbreeding had also caused all of them to suffer from a deformity called lumbosacral transitional vertebrae.
By 2017 there were two wolves left.
Before the NPS released the Record of Decision (ROD) for the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to Address the Presence of Wolves at Isle Royale National Park, which was signed by Midwest Regional Director Cam Sholly on June 7, the National Park Service had conducted three years of meetings with the public, accepted thousands of written comments, and performed an EIS.
In a statement released by the park service, Sholly said, “This decision is an important step forward in attempting to obtain a proper predator-prey dynamic within the Isle Royale National Park ecosystem. We appreciate the intense public involvement throughout this process and look forward to continued outreach as this decision is implemented.”
With only two aging wolves left, a male and female that are related and no longer breeding, and the infrequent forming of ice bridges wolves used to come to the island, it was decided that a natural recovery of the wolf population was unlikely.
And, with only two aging predators left, the moose population has been growing at an alarming rate to an estimated 1,400. This has raised concerns about the impacts of moose indirectly damaging the island’s ecosystem by over browsing the forests and vegetation. In the past a healthy wolf population would take 12 percent to 13 percent of the moose on an annual basis, keeping their numbers in check.
The move to reintroduce more wolves also means the predator/ prey study Michigan Technological University began in 1959 will be ongoing. The predation study is the longest running of its kind, and it has been run in its entirety by Michigan Technological University staff.
Isle Royale is 45 miles long and nine miles wide, with a landmass of 206.73 square miles. The big island is about 15 miles off of the shore from Grand Portage and the Voyageur II and the Seahunter III take visitors there all summer long. The trip is a bit longer from Michigan. The island is 56 miles from the Michigan shore, on the Keweenaw Peninsula.
It is one if the least visited national parks, with roughly 18,216 people traveling to see its greenstone ridges and boreal forest in the summer and fall. The park is closed to visitors during the winter.
In light of the recent decision, the National Park Service will actively develop specific implementation strategies, and logistics for the capture, relocation, and introduction of wolves from the Great Lakes Region to Isle Royale.
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