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Fringey Mini: And here we see the mighty wolf attacking the noble aspen · Journey to the Fringe

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  For the mini this week, I'm going with the first
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  article I pulled up. It's a German article, so
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  I'm reading this from the Google Translate. I
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  was really hoping you were gonna do it in German.
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  Yep. And it's from bootjespleen .ml. Maybe it's
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  from the Netherlands. Maybe it's Dane, what did,
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  oh no, what do they speak there? Dutch. Dutch.
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  I think that's Netherlands. It could be Newfoundland,
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  who knows? I understand them about the same anyway.
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  This article is titled Yellowstone's Aspen trees
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  are blooming again thanks to the reintroduction
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  of wolves. And this is by editorial team. October
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  25th 2025 5 11 p .m. In case you're wondering
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  what time. We're always so worried about the
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  time. I know. It is missing on most articles
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  I would say. When the wolves returned everything
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  changed. Today the slime Under white trunks rise
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  again along streams and meadows. There leaves
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  a symbol of recovery. What changed wasn't the
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  number of elk, but the way the entire ecosystem
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  moves. Again, this is Google Translate. That
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  morning, the fog hung slowly over the Lamar Valley,
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  like a curtain that refuses to leave the scene.
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  Elk lurked in the sagebrush, alert, listening.
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  A faint howl rolled from the hills. I hope this
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  isn't an AI trick again. Just wait until the
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  whales show up when the changes do. Then faded
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  again, like a memory you can't hold on to. Near
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  the river I brushed past a stand of young aspens.
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  Their bark was still marked with old bite marks,
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  but their crowns already reached above my shoulder.
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  A ranger whispered that five years earlier another...
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  Why did he whisper? I don't know! It seems rather
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  intimate. This is like Dear Man from Central
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  Alberta all over again. He took off his hat to
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  show off his beautiful rack. My pigs! A ranger
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  whispered, five years earlier, nothing had survived
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  the snow line here. Now the light looked different.
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  dappled, layered alive. The river even sounded
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  different, softer under the new canopy. The wolves
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  were nowhere to be seen, but their presence was
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  palpable everywhere. Oh, this is a sex scene.
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  What I do on the internet is what I wonder. Walk
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  along a Yellowstone stream today and you'll clearly
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  see the boundary between past and present. The
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  ancient Aspens stand pale and scared, their lower
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  branches stripped bare by decades of hungry elk.
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  Behind them, young growth grows in dense clusters,
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  taller than a man and filled with life where
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  emptiness once reigned. The elk still graze,
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  but they no longer linger on the open plains.
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  Fear is a silent architect. horses' herds to
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  move, seeking shelter and leaving space for young
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  trees to grow above the feeding zone. One afternoon
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  at Slough Creek, a conservationist showed me
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  a marked out grassland. In 2010, nearly every
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  aspen shoot here had been nibbled down to knee
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  high. Do you understand what's happening? The
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  wolves are scaring off the elk so they don't
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  eat the saplings so new trees are coming up.
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  Okay, is this how they talk in the Netherlands?
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  That's how they whisper to each other, yes. Okay.
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  This summer, saplings towered more than six feet
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  above the ground. Beaver dams returned, muddy
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  piles that hold water well into August. And with
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  the shade came sound, songbirds filling the air,
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  woodpeckers tapping like tiny carpenters, swallows
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  carving graceful curves. In some areas, the number
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  of aspen trunks growing tall enough to escape
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  grazing has increased several times since the
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  return of the wolves in the 1990s. See, I was
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  thinking that it was was because the wolves were
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  biting the trees. Yeah, they kind of let that
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  on initially. But yours makes more sense. I know
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  the story of the wolves being reintroduced to
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  Yellowstone. It's like a very famous reintroduction
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  success story. So I kind of assumed that's where
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  they were going. Was it scaring off the elk?
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  Maybe we're losing some stuff in translation.
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  Ecologists? Oh, we're not. Okay. Ecologists call
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  this a trophic cascade, but it feels more human.
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  cause and effect, action and echo. Wolves changed
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  the moose's behavior. That changed the plants.
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  The plants reshaped the water. The water attracted
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  beavers, and beavers reshaped the valleys. Wolves
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  weren't the only cause. Harsh winters, drought,
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  and human hunting outside the park also played
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  a role, but the reintroduction restored a missing
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  link, and the system found its equilibrium. Stand
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  in the wet grass, watch a moose hesitate at the
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  edge of the willows. That's how trees seize off
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  opportunities. I was gonna end it there, but
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  I think this might be an important part for everybody
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  listening. How to recognize Aspen recovery yourself.
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  Start with height. If Aspen leaves grow above
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  your chest, out of reach of a moose, you're seeing
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  recovery. I think moose are a little bigger than
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  that. Follow the steam banks in the early morning
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  or evening light. The stream banks, sorry, that
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  makes more sense than steam paints. where moose
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  decide where to stay. Look for pale trunks among
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  willows and alders. Step back and observe. If
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  the lower branches are bare, but the tops are
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  full and green, that's progress. Note how many
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  trunks reach above shoulder height. That's how
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  rangers do it, only without the clipboard. Everyone
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  knows that feeling when a wild landscape seems
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  too vast to grasp. Slowing down helps. Let small
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  signals speak for themselves. Keep your distance
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  from animals. Use binoculars. Wind direction
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  is important. If moose smell you, they'll disappear.
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  Light also changes the story. Bright midday sun
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  obscures feeding marks that become visible in
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  the evening light. Try it, and the landscape
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  will begin to reveal its secrets. Okay. Yeah,
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  I guess that is a good spot to end it. I would
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  also like to weirdly point out, I feel like our
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  last Christmas episode. Oh right, this was Christmas.
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  We let in with a fringy mini about the whale
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  that dropped itself down Mountains in Colorado,
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  too. Right. And you know what? I feel like this
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  is a real missed opportunity because nobody's
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  been picking my category of feeling like a Christmas
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  Minnie. I feel like someone would have picked
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  it. Yet here we are. I picked one for us. Maybe
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  another day. Hey, maybe in 48 hours we pick it.
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  You never know. I mean, I have this full script
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  right in front of me ready to go, but we never
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  know. You never know. There's a whole 48 hours
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  between now and then. Stay on that edge of your
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  seat until then and we'll find out. Okay, bye.
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  Bye.