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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
For more than a decade, the Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project (CWMP) has conducted research using remote
cameras, wildlife tracking and DNA sample collection, to study Washington's rare and sensitive wildlife through
citizen science. Led by Conservation Northwest (CNW) in partnership with the Wilderness Awareness School and
other groups and agencies, the CWMP has engaged in monitoring wildlife presence and activity in critical areas for
wildlife connectivity and conservation. The CWMP emphasizes the importance of monitoring and conservation
efforts to ensure a stable landscape for our region's wildlife.
Citizen scientists from this project continue to contribute valuable, new information about the presence and
distribution of wildlife in our state through both remote camera surveys and snow tracking. CWMP often covers
geographic areas beyond those of ongoing professional research efforts, supplementing and strengthening the
work of agencies, biologists and other collaborators on our Advisory Council. Not only does visual documentation
of species influence research and policy decisions, these images create a narrative and a face for our wildlands.
During the 2018 remote camera season, 52 volunteers contributed more than 3,100 hours to the CWMP by
attending trainings, and installing and maintaining 81 camera installations in 36 survey areas in Washington and
British Columbia.
CWMP's monitoring efforts are broken into two projects: remote camera monitoring (annual monitoring with
heavier effort from May-October) and snow tracking along Interstate 90 (typically December-March). At the
culmination of each project, a monitoring report is prepared and made public through Conservation Northwest's
website (https://www.conservationnw.org/wildlife-monitoring/). This report focuses on our results from the 2018
remote camera monitoring year. Separate snow tracking reports are available on our website.
In 2018, we concentrated our study area in two distinct landscapes – the Cascade Mountains in Washington and
the transboundary Kettle River Mountain Range of northeast Washington and southern British Columbia,
including the Rossland Range in B.C. Within the Cascade Mountains, we have divided the study area into three
regions:
1. Washington's North Cascades: North of Interstate-90 (North Cascades)
2. I-90 Corridor: Between Snoqualmie Pass and Easton along I-90
3. Washington's South Cascades: South of I-90 (South Cascades)
The main objectives for the 2018 field season were to:
1) Detect the presence of gray wolf (Canis lupus) in the South Cascades.
2) Detect the presence of wolverines (Gulo gulo) in new locations and continue to monitor known
populations in the North and South Cascades.
3) Detect grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone (Appendix I).
4) Monitor the presence of a wide variety of species of wildlife in the I-90 corridor (Snoqualmie Pass to
Easton).
5) Document transboundary Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) presence in northeast Washington and southern
