Abstract
One of the most important proposed examples of a trophic cascade concerns the reintroduction of grey wolves into Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Ripple et. al. 2001, 2014, 2015). As the story goes, the reintroduced grey wolves have reduced elk populations, and this has encouraged a variety of plant and animal species to increase. However, some have argued that this example’s success in the academic and public imagination has not been the result of the empirical evidence in its favor (Peterson et. al. 2014; Marris 2018). Rather, it is because it promotes various environmental values at play. These biases in fact have led to methodologically problematic science. Philosophers of science have been exploring values in science, and I will do so in this debate. Following the work of Helen Longino (1990, 2002) and Solomon (2010) in particular, I argue that the presence of values is not especially problematic provided diverse evaluative commitments are manifest in the research process. I explore this case study to see to what extent transformative criticism has taken place and where improvements can be made to the epistemic structure of these debates. Longino, H.E., 1994. Science as social knowledge. Princeton university press. ______. 2018. The fate of knowledge. Princeton University Press. Marris, E., A good story: Media bias in trophic cascade research in Yellowstone National Park. In Effective Conservation Science, pgs. 80-84. Oxford University Press. Peterson, R. O., Vucetich, J. A., Bump, J. M., and Smith, D. W. (2014). Trophic cascades in a multicausal world: Isle Royale and Yellowstone. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 45, 325–45. Ripple, W. J., Beschta, R. L., Fortin, J. K., and Robbins, C. T. (2014). Trophic cascades from wolves to grizzly bears in Yellowstone. Journal of Animal Ecology 83, 223–33. Ripple, W. J., Beschta, R. L., Fortin, J. K., and Robbins, C. T. (2015). Wolves trigger a trophic cascade to berries as alternative food for grizzly bears. Journal of Animal Ecology 84, 652–4. Ripple, W. J., Larson, E. J., Renkin, R. A., and Smith, D. W. (2001). Trophic cascades among wolves, elk and aspen on Yellowstone National Park’s northern range. Biological Conservation 102, 227–34. Solomon, M., 2007. Social empiricism. MIT press.
