How to pronounce "riffle"

on the carrion that the wolves had left.

Bears fed on it too, and their population began to rise as well,

partly also because there were more berries

growing on the regenerating shrubs,

and the bears reinforced the impact of the wolves

by killing some of the calves of the deer.

But here's where it gets really interesting.

The wolves changed the behavior of the rivers.

They began to meander less.

There was less erosion. The channels narrowed.

More pools formed, more riffle sections,

all of which were great for wildlife habitats.

The rivers changed

in response to the wolves,

and the reason was that the regenerating forests

stabilized the banks so that they collapsed less often,

so that the rivers became more fixed in their course.

Similarly, by driving the deer out of some places

and the vegetation recovering on the valley sides,

there was less soil erosion,

because the vegetation stabilized that as well.