WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.500 For the mini this week, I'm going with the first 00:00:02.500 --> 00:00:05.040 article I pulled up. It's a German article, so 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:08.080 I'm reading this from the Google Translate. I 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:09.859 was really hoping you were gonna do it in German. 00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:15.380 Yep. And it's from bootjespleen .ml. Maybe it's 00:00:15.380 --> 00:00:18.500 from the Netherlands. Maybe it's Dane, what did, 00:00:18.579 --> 00:00:20.859 oh no, what do they speak there? Dutch. Dutch. 00:00:21.410 --> 00:00:24.250 I think that's Netherlands. It could be Newfoundland, 00:00:24.269 --> 00:00:27.070 who knows? I understand them about the same anyway. 00:00:27.250 --> 00:00:30.429 This article is titled Yellowstone's Aspen trees 00:00:30.429 --> 00:00:33.409 are blooming again thanks to the reintroduction 00:00:33.409 --> 00:00:37.350 of wolves. And this is by editorial team. October 00:00:37.350 --> 00:00:40.990 25th 2025 5 11 p .m. In case you're wondering 00:00:40.990 --> 00:00:42.869 what time. We're always so worried about the 00:00:42.869 --> 00:00:45.810 time. I know. It is missing on most articles 00:00:45.810 --> 00:00:48.450 I would say. When the wolves returned everything 00:00:48.450 --> 00:00:51.829 changed. Today the slime Under white trunks rise 00:00:51.829 --> 00:00:54.490 again along streams and meadows. There leaves 00:00:54.490 --> 00:00:57.670 a symbol of recovery. What changed wasn't the 00:00:57.670 --> 00:01:00.750 number of elk, but the way the entire ecosystem 00:01:00.750 --> 00:01:04.709 moves. Again, this is Google Translate. That 00:01:04.709 --> 00:01:08.409 morning, the fog hung slowly over the Lamar Valley, 00:01:08.549 --> 00:01:11.049 like a curtain that refuses to leave the scene. 00:01:11.250 --> 00:01:14.510 Elk lurked in the sagebrush, alert, listening. 00:01:14.750 --> 00:01:17.590 A faint howl rolled from the hills. I hope this 00:01:17.590 --> 00:01:21.560 isn't an AI trick again. Just wait until the 00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:25.519 whales show up when the changes do. Then faded 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:28.540 again, like a memory you can't hold on to. Near 00:01:28.540 --> 00:01:31.859 the river I brushed past a stand of young aspens. 00:01:32.060 --> 00:01:34.680 Their bark was still marked with old bite marks, 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:37.599 but their crowns already reached above my shoulder. 00:01:37.939 --> 00:01:41.200 A ranger whispered that five years earlier another... 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:44.859 Why did he whisper? I don't know! It seems rather 00:01:44.859 --> 00:01:48.120 intimate. This is like Dear Man from Central 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:54.079 Alberta all over again. He took off his hat to 00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:58.780 show off his beautiful rack. My pigs! A ranger 00:01:58.780 --> 00:02:02.219 whispered, five years earlier, nothing had survived 00:02:02.219 --> 00:02:05.260 the snow line here. Now the light looked different. 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:08.960 dappled, layered alive. The river even sounded 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:12.400 different, softer under the new canopy. The wolves 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:15.340 were nowhere to be seen, but their presence was 00:02:15.340 --> 00:02:19.439 palpable everywhere. Oh, this is a sex scene. 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:25.159 What I do on the internet is what I wonder. Walk 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:28.000 along a Yellowstone stream today and you'll clearly 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:30.719 see the boundary between past and present. The 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:34.060 ancient Aspens stand pale and scared, their lower 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:36.960 branches stripped bare by decades of hungry elk. 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:40.699 Behind them, young growth grows in dense clusters, 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:43.319 taller than a man and filled with life where 00:02:43.319 --> 00:02:46.219 emptiness once reigned. The elk still graze, 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:49.020 but they no longer linger on the open plains. 00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:52.479 Fear is a silent architect. horses' herds to 00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:55.319 move, seeking shelter and leaving space for young 00:02:55.319 --> 00:02:58.319 trees to grow above the feeding zone. One afternoon 00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:01.319 at Slough Creek, a conservationist showed me 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:04.860 a marked out grassland. In 2010, nearly every 00:03:04.860 --> 00:03:07.560 aspen shoot here had been nibbled down to knee 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:10.639 high. Do you understand what's happening? The 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:13.000 wolves are scaring off the elk so they don't 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.819 eat the saplings so new trees are coming up. 00:03:15.939 --> 00:03:18.199 Okay, is this how they talk in the Netherlands? 00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:20.889 That's how they whisper to each other, yes. Okay. 00:03:20.889 --> 00:03:24.349 This summer, saplings towered more than six feet 00:03:24.349 --> 00:03:27.189 above the ground. Beaver dams returned, muddy 00:03:27.189 --> 00:03:30.389 piles that hold water well into August. And with 00:03:30.389 --> 00:03:33.430 the shade came sound, songbirds filling the air, 00:03:33.650 --> 00:03:36.830 woodpeckers tapping like tiny carpenters, swallows 00:03:36.830 --> 00:03:39.930 carving graceful curves. In some areas, the number 00:03:39.930 --> 00:03:42.509 of aspen trunks growing tall enough to escape 00:03:42.509 --> 00:03:45.889 grazing has increased several times since the 00:03:45.889 --> 00:03:49.090 return of the wolves in the 1990s. See, I was 00:03:49.090 --> 00:03:50.969 thinking that it was was because the wolves were 00:03:50.969 --> 00:03:54.430 biting the trees. Yeah, they kind of let that 00:03:54.430 --> 00:03:57.169 on initially. But yours makes more sense. I know 00:03:57.169 --> 00:03:59.330 the story of the wolves being reintroduced to 00:03:59.330 --> 00:04:02.349 Yellowstone. It's like a very famous reintroduction 00:04:02.349 --> 00:04:05.050 success story. So I kind of assumed that's where 00:04:05.050 --> 00:04:06.789 they were going. Was it scaring off the elk? 00:04:06.909 --> 00:04:09.509 Maybe we're losing some stuff in translation. 00:04:10.050 --> 00:04:14.210 Ecologists? Oh, we're not. Okay. Ecologists call 00:04:14.210 --> 00:04:17.470 this a trophic cascade, but it feels more human. 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:20.920 cause and effect, action and echo. Wolves changed 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:23.620 the moose's behavior. That changed the plants. 00:04:23.819 --> 00:04:26.800 The plants reshaped the water. The water attracted 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:29.839 beavers, and beavers reshaped the valleys. Wolves 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:32.480 weren't the only cause. Harsh winters, drought, 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:35.399 and human hunting outside the park also played 00:04:35.399 --> 00:04:38.319 a role, but the reintroduction restored a missing 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:41.639 link, and the system found its equilibrium. Stand 00:04:41.639 --> 00:04:44.639 in the wet grass, watch a moose hesitate at the 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:47.120 edge of the willows. That's how trees seize off 00:04:47.019 --> 00:04:49.279 opportunities. I was gonna end it there, but 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:51.920 I think this might be an important part for everybody 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:55.879 listening. How to recognize Aspen recovery yourself. 00:04:56.279 --> 00:04:58.980 Start with height. If Aspen leaves grow above 00:04:58.980 --> 00:05:01.699 your chest, out of reach of a moose, you're seeing 00:05:01.699 --> 00:05:03.939 recovery. I think moose are a little bigger than 00:05:03.939 --> 00:05:06.620 that. Follow the steam banks in the early morning 00:05:06.620 --> 00:05:09.519 or evening light. The stream banks, sorry, that 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:15.009 makes more sense than steam paints. where moose 00:05:15.009 --> 00:05:17.990 decide where to stay. Look for pale trunks among 00:05:17.990 --> 00:05:22.129 willows and alders. Step back and observe. If 00:05:22.129 --> 00:05:24.850 the lower branches are bare, but the tops are 00:05:24.850 --> 00:05:27.769 full and green, that's progress. Note how many 00:05:27.769 --> 00:05:30.250 trunks reach above shoulder height. That's how 00:05:30.250 --> 00:05:33.550 rangers do it, only without the clipboard. Everyone 00:05:33.550 --> 00:05:36.350 knows that feeling when a wild landscape seems 00:05:36.350 --> 00:05:40.069 too vast to grasp. Slowing down helps. Let small 00:05:40.069 --> 00:05:42.550 signals speak for themselves. Keep your distance 00:05:42.550 --> 00:05:45.319 from animals. Use binoculars. Wind direction 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:48.660 is important. If moose smell you, they'll disappear. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:52.040 Light also changes the story. Bright midday sun 00:05:52.040 --> 00:05:54.740 obscures feeding marks that become visible in 00:05:54.740 --> 00:05:57.060 the evening light. Try it, and the landscape 00:05:57.060 --> 00:06:00.439 will begin to reveal its secrets. Okay. Yeah, 00:06:00.439 --> 00:06:02.680 I guess that is a good spot to end it. I would 00:06:02.680 --> 00:06:05.420 also like to weirdly point out, I feel like our 00:06:05.420 --> 00:06:08.579 last Christmas episode. Oh right, this was Christmas. 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:11.560 We let in with a fringy mini about the whale 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:14.269 that dropped itself down Mountains in Colorado, 00:06:14.589 --> 00:06:17.709 too. Right. And you know what? I feel like this 00:06:17.709 --> 00:06:20.649 is a real missed opportunity because nobody's 00:06:20.649 --> 00:06:23.750 been picking my category of feeling like a Christmas 00:06:23.750 --> 00:06:29.769 Minnie. I feel like someone would have picked 00:06:29.769 --> 00:06:33.589 it. Yet here we are. I picked one for us. Maybe 00:06:33.589 --> 00:06:37.610 another day. Hey, maybe in 48 hours we pick it. 00:06:37.649 --> 00:06:39.649 You never know. I mean, I have this full script 00:06:39.649 --> 00:06:41.649 right in front of me ready to go, but we never 00:06:41.649 --> 00:06:44.730 know. You never know. There's a whole 48 hours 00:06:44.730 --> 00:06:47.310 between now and then. Stay on that edge of your 00:06:47.310 --> 00:06:49.649 seat until then and we'll find out. Okay, bye. 00:06:50.589 --> 00:06:50.589 Bye.