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Bee garden muir woods1/1/2024 When wolves came back on the scene many interesting and sometimes unexpected things began to take place. In that time, the numbers of deer and elk became artificially high and despite efforts by the park to control them, they reduced vegetation in some areas to almost zero (is this starting to sound familiar?). Before wolves were brought back into the mix, they had been absent from the Yellowstone ecosystem for almost 70 years. Perhaps the most famous example of a trophic cascade is what happened in Yellowstone National Park after the reintroduction of wolves in 1995. This may have been putting the cart before the horse, however, since some non-target species (such as insect pollinators) may actually be integral to the long-term success of plant restoration. Scientists believed that when this happened, insects, small mammals, birds, larger herbivores and finally the top predators fell neatly into a balance with each other. Restoration projects often focused on the plant community with the belief that non-target species would also be restored once a critical mass of healthy plants had been established. In the past it was thought that an ecosystem was built from the bottom up. Studies of trophic cascades, where one or two keystone species greatly influences the ecology and behavior of dozens of other species, is relatively new to science. When wolves were reintroduced to the Yellowstone ecosystem, their predation on the park's over abundant elk and deer herds had effects that surprised park scientists/ In Morristown NHP, bee communities were surveyed in order to study potential “trophic cascades” (an ecological process that starts at or near the top of the food-chain and eventually makes its way to the bottom) of deer feeding habits on floral resources also used by bees. Damage can be so severe that many ecologists consider the over abundant deer population to be the single greatest threat to the long-term health of northeastern forests. As generalist herbivores, deer preferentially feed on certain plants, trees, and shrubs which reduces the diversity and abundance of flowering plants. Morristown National Historical Park was chosen to be part of a study looking at the relationship between white-tailed deer browsing habits, wildflower availability and emergence times, and insect pollinator populations - particularly bees. Stresses on area forests are only likely to intensify further due to climate change and the resulting phenological shifts which may throw off the synchronicity of native bee emergence with flowering times of wildflowers and plants. Due to a combination of factors including a lack of “top-line” predators and the creation of abundant edge habitat by humans, Northeastern forest ecosystems, including several NPS I&M Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) parks, are becoming increasingly impacted by an over-abundant deer population. Such is the case for the relationship between birds, wildflowers, white-tailed deer, and our most important pollinator of both natural and agricultural plants - bees. To the rest of us mere mortals, these connections are not always obvious. John Muir was a master at observing the interconnectedness of nature. The forest floor is usually covered with non-preferred species as well such as ferns and invasive plants. Heavy feeding from too many deer creates clear "browse lines" marking as high as the animals can reach.
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