Meanwhile the ecosystem, natural or not, churns along. Early on a spring morning, the signs abound. Ducks dabble in ponds. Coyotes freeze, listen, pounce on ground squirrels. The air is filled with birdsong.
Beetles go about their work underfoot.
Three wolves, one gray and two black, come down from the hills, lope across the road only a few yards away and wade across the Lamar River, patrolling their turf. A young grizzly, brown with gray trim, soon follows. The hillsides are alive with elk, even though their fluctuating population is in a trough. Bison numbers were also reduced by the harsh 1996-97 winter. But they are there, grazing the lower levels.