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Jeffery Holden is pictured taking notes over a wolf-killed moose on Isle Royale. (Photo courtesy of Anna Burke)<\/p>\n
LANSING \u2013 Jeffrey Holden spends his summers knee-deep in dead moose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his new book \u201cDead Moose on Isle Royale: Off Trail with the Citizen Scientists of the Wolf-Moose Project\u201d (Michigan State University Press, $24.95), Holden turns decades of volunteer field notes and short essays into an off-trail narrative about the people who sustain one of ecology\u2019s longest-running studies.<\/p>\n
The Wolf-Moose Project at Isle Royale National Park started with scientists from Purdue University, Durward Allen and L. David Mech, in 1958. Since then, volunteers have collected data through on-the-ground fieldwork and built a six-decade record that reveals how climate, disease and food availability shape population cycles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the world\u2019s longest-running predator-prey study, tracking the balance between gray wolves and moose in the remote island national park in Lake Superior.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Isle Royale\u2019s ecosystem is simple \u2013 wolves as the main predator and moose as the main prey \u2013 and the project shows the unique dynamic into how predator-prey relationships work in the wild.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople thought wolves were relentless killing machines and that the moose were goners. It was quickly apparent to Allen and Mech that that presumption was incorrect. Wolves are selective and, more often than not, unsuccessful hunters,\u201d Holden writes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Holden first went to Isle Royale to volunteer for the Wolf-Moose Project in 2002 because he enjoys taking a vacation where he is learning and always doing something.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During that period, he helped the group leader butcher two rotting moose carcasses. Their goal? Retrieving the moose bones for scientific analysis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that kind of separated me from some of the other volunteers. I was willing to literally dig in and get my hands dirty,\u201d said Holden.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For over the two decades that he has been traveling to Isle Royale to volunteer for the project, he wrote weekly essays and kept journals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018I\u2019ve got enough material here for a book,’\u201d Holden said.<\/p>\n
A former data specialist in health care, he wrote the book for readers who are curious about field work rather than for specialists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was writing for non-scientist people, and I wanted it to be kind of informal and conversational, so it\u2019s not a technical sort of text,\u201d Holden said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He uses that conversational style to tell the story of a study that many scientists view as one of the world\u2019s most important.<\/p>\n
The preface is by Douglas Smith, the project leader of the Gray Wolf Restoration Project in Yellowstone National Park for nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Isle Royale Wolf-Moose Study is pushing seven decades, and its contribution to understanding nature and predator-prey interactions is unrivaled,\u201d Smith wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has also utilized hundreds of enthusiastic and capable volunteers \u2014 people who want to make a difference. Together, these things have made this study perhaps one of the most important in the world,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Holden has seen that power firsthand, saying that the volunteers are what makes the project possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Usually, 60 to 80 volunteers join each summer and \u201cconstitute the majority of the summer study\u201d by locating carcasses, taking photos and hauling remains back to the researchers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That effort has created an unusually large archive of skeletal remains.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe citizen scientists bring back a lot of moose skeletons. So right now the project has a little over 6,000 sets of moose remains from the last 50, 60 years of the project. And it\u2019s a pretty comprehensive set of moose bones,\u201d said Holden.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The book also explains the scientific advantage of decades of research.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Holden pointed to a recent collaboration with Duke University researchers in human medicine to compare moose health to human health.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were able to document a very strong correlation between periodontal disease and arthritis in general,\u201d Holden said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also touches on the ethical and logistical pressures facing long-term research, including funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the project\u2019s main grants from the National Science Foundation is likely to be reduced or cut entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Holden said the project\u2019s leaders helped start a foundation to build an endowment after concerns that government grants might decline.<\/p>\n
\u201cDepending on the year, it takes $150,000 to run this study,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Holden said long-term researchers often struggle to attract steady support because funders want quick results.<\/p>\n
A part of what keeps Holden going are the connections he has made.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good friends now that I\u2019ve got that go up and do the same thing. And we all have kind of the same mission, so it\u2019s one of those shared experiences that makes the time richer,\u201d Holden said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Isabella Figueroa writes for Great Lakes Echo.<\/p>\n
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