Conservation Northwest

Homecoming for wildlife Coming home Conservation Northwest's wildlife monitoring program helped capture some of the first pictures of wolves and wolverines returning to the state in several decades. Since these discoveries, we have been working to get these species credible recovery plans and to secure the pathways they are using on both sides of the border to return home. For the greatest predator of all—the North Cascades grizzly bear— progress has been a bit slower. But occasional sightings and photos continue to materialize on both sides of the border, giving hope that it's not too late for the great bear if we act soon. Of all the large carnivores, they'll need the most help to make it back home. Moving to, moving through Despite the uncertainty that the future holds, one thing remains certain: The only way animals will survive here is if they have large blocks of connected habitat that allows them the freedom to move safely across the landscape. Our very own North Cascades now plays a starring role in this effort. With over two million acres of wild forests and mountains, the North Cascades complex is one of the largest remaining chunks of intact wilderness left in the lower 48 states that can still host wide-ranging animals like lynx, grizzly bears, wolves, and wolverines. We bear a responsibility to the nation and to the world to protect this important hub in the larger interconnected wildlife transit system of large wild areas. But as the Cascades become increasingly surrounded by development, getting cut off from other large ecosystems, the fewer number of species they will be able to support, as they become disconnected "islands" of habitat. This is why maintaining "wildlife connectivity" (just a fancy term for an environment suitable for animals to move through) is critical. Conservation Northwest has been working with scientists and biologists to facilitate large landscape analyses to help uncover the least risky routes wide-ranging animals could use to move into and around Washington. Through Conservation Northwest's work with the Washington Habitat Connectivity Working Group, it's become clear that if the North Cascades are to avoid becoming an ecological island, there are at least three major areas that need attention. The three pathways The first pathway is the north-south connection from the southern British Columbia's Coast and Chilcotin Ranges to the Cascades Mountains. The second is the east-west connection to the Rockies through the Kootenays of southeastern BC, into northeast Washington's Kettle and Selkirk Ranges, and over the Okanogan Valley. And the third addresses the barrier to wildlife movement that is posed by Interstate 90 near Snoqualmie Pass. Conservation Northwest has built our conservation priorities around these three vital lifelines. It is why we have been working so hard for decades around I-90 in the central Washington Cascades (p. 7). It is why we keep pushing to keep a connection in the Okanogan and the Kettles for lynx (p. 9). It is why the fate of the grizzly bear in southwest British Columbia should matter to a conservationist in Seattle (p. 11). The future of the Cascades is inevitably tied to fate of lands in British Columbia and the Rockies. As many Northwesterners know firsthand, home is not necessarily where you were born, but it's where you feel you belong. Wildlife—some after decades of being gone—are trying to come home to the Pacific Northwest—where they belong. The question is: Once they are here, will we let them stay? Conservation Northwest has built our conservation priorities around three vital lifelines for wildlife. Map by Brett Cole, brettcolephotography.com Keeping the Northwest wild Fall 2013 5

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