10 | P a g e
North Cascades Wolverine Study and on geographic locations where specific requests for
assistance from ongoing researchers are made to complement their efforts.
I-90 CORRIDOR MONITORING
Historically, I-90 has been known as a major barrier to north and south wildlife movement in
the Cascades. As a result of an earlier large scale connectivity analysis of the Cascade
Mountains, a narrow crucial corridor across Interstate 90 was identified for wildlife passage.
10
In
an effort to create a more permeable interstate, the Washington Department of Transportation
has developed a 15-mile highway expansion project (I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project) where
measures for safe wildlife passage have been incorporated into the plan. Multiple crossing
structures, including two overpasses, are slated for construction within the next five years.
For over five years, our project has worked in concert with the Washington Department of
Transportation and Western Transportation Institute to monitor wildlife activity along I-90 in
the project area. Through both remote camera monitoring and snow tracking, CWMP has
provided valuable data informing the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project (I-90 SPE) throughout
its planning and implementation phases. During the 2013 monitoring season, construction of
Phase 1 of the I-90 SPE project was underway while the three wildlife underpasses at Gold
Creek and Rocky Run were structurally complete and awaiting habitat restoration of habitat
within them.
Our goals in 2013 for monitoring the I-90 stretch from Hyak to Easton were to document
wildlife activity in the habitat leading into to these completed wildlife crossing structures, while
also documenting wildlife presence in key connectivity emphasis areas in future phases of the
project.
TRANSBOUNDARY LYNX MONITORING
Washington is home to one of the largest populations of Canada lynx, the rarest wild cats in
North America in the lower 48 states.
11
Much like the history of wolverines in our state, lynx
were targeted for trapping and hunting in the fur trade in the 1800s and early 1900s. Hunting
pressure along with habitat decline reduced their numbers drastically in Washington.
12
As a
result of these pressures, lynx are protected under the federal and state Endangered Species
Acts. Based on the preferred habitat of lynx, Koelher et al. estimate that Washington has
10
I-90 Wildlife Bridges Project description and connectivity analysis: i90wildlifebridges.org/project-info
11
Derek W. Stinson, Washington State Recovery Plan for the Lynx (Olympia, WA, USA: Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2001).
12
Ibid.
