A Century of Overabundant Ungulates in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley: First Elk and Now Bison
Robert L. Beschta, William J. Ripple, J. Boone Kauffman · 2026
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Description
Robert L. Beschta is lead author of a 2026 journal article on a century of overabundant hoofed animals in Yellowstone National Park's Lamar Valley, first elk and now bison. Heavy elk grazing long suppressed the valley's riverside trees and shrubs until wolf reintroduction in the mid-1990s let many plant communities recover.
Since the early 2000s, growing bison numbers have renewed the pressure. The team measured young and mature cottonwoods and aspens and compared dated photographs. Bison browsing kept cottonwood seedlings short, blocking new forests, and rubbing and horning badly damaged saplings and small trees. The share of mature cottonwoods with bark damage rose from five or six percent to nearly fifty percent between 2001 and 2023, while nearly a third of those trees died.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Robert L. Beschta, William J. Ripple, J. Boone Kauffman |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 57428 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |