Conservation Northwest

2012-2013-fall-spring-citizen-wildlife-monitoring-report

Conservation Northwest protects and connects old-growth forests and other wild areas from the Washington Coast to the British Columbia Rockies, vital to a healthy future for us, our children, and wildlife. Since 1989, Conservation Northwest has worke

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Site Selection Prior to the season, sites are selected and prioritized in coordination with our Advisory Council. We present our Advisory Council with the number of sites we are able to dedicate to the season based on equipment inventory and a preliminary list of recommended sites. We seek their input on our recommendations and any additions they may have, then finalize a list for the season that guides a refined look at each site and volunteer recruitment. Each site has a stated purpose to either record the presence of a target species, or monitor wildlife presence in general in a specific location. Project staff work with specific site advisors from our Advisory Council or their peers to develop a description for our volunteers that provides the stated purpose for the site, general directions and tips for selecting a specific site within the selected geography, maps, and contact information for support during the season. We utilize volunteer field knowledge to guide and reassess site location in the field based on their experiences and results during the season. Our volunteers provide an effective feedback mechanism for consistent reassessment of the best site location, and actual field conditions for their site based. Lures and bait Scent marking is an important means of communication within the animal kingdom. Animals use scent to mark territories, to find mates and prey, and to assess levels of danger by ascertaining when, who, and what has been in the area. Scent lure is used at the majority of our sites to bring area wildlife into our camera's field of view to be recorded, and bait was used in combination with scent lure at our wolverine stations this season. The application and selection of attractant at our station is determined to meet the specific objectives of a site and in consultation with our Advisory Council. This season, we did not utilize attractant at one of our stations along I-90 due to its proximity to the roadway. At all other stations, we utilized Gusto as our scent attractant. Bait in combination with a scent attractant was only utilized in our camera sites focused on the detection of wolverines. This followed a unique protocol that included the construction of a run-pole station. In this set-up the bait is hung from cables above a run-pole station to strategically place the animal in front of our cameras to non-invasively capture evidence of the unique morphological fur chest markings and sex of wolverines attracted to the camera station. Wild bait (deer, elk, etc., often from road kills) was used whenever possible, and in instances when it was not available store purchased bait was utilized. IV. Results and Discussion Results are reported for the priority level 1-3 species of interest to our program. We do not report photographs of birds, hares, small rodents, or dogs or cats. Domestic livestock are reported per site in the Recorded Level 3 species tables but are not included in the Diversity of Species by Priority Level 11

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