Conservation Northwest

2013 Spring-Fall Field Season Report CWMP

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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16 | P a g e To give geographical context to our data, we have summarized our results following our five study area divisions described in our methodology. Additionally, each site represents combined data from two separately situated motion-triggered cameras set up within the same vicinity. CASCADES MOUNTAINS North Cascades Designated as the area North of US 2 and west of US 97, the North Cascades region consisted of two sites in 2013. Both the Ice Lake and Union Gap sites were dedicated to wolverine detection (Table 1). Due to terrain conditions, Ice Lake was established later in the season than the other two North Cascades sites. Because of this, the Ice Lake site monitoring will carry over into the 2013-2014 Winter monitoring season. Table 1: North Cascade site information for the 2013 season. *denotes site continued into the 2013-2014 Winter monitoring season Ice Lake was the only North Cascades site to receive documented visits by species from all three priority levels, including a visit from a target species (wolverine) for the 2013 season (Table 2). Though a wolverine was documented at the site, identifiable chest blazes were not captured on camera as a result of misapplied lure. The site was established within the known home range of Sasha, a previously documented female wolverine through the North Cascades Wolverine Study who was believed to be denning in this area. Our goal was to record not only Sasha's presence but kits or other evidence of her reproduction. Therefore, while we did document wolverine presence we were unable to specifically link the photograph to her and we did not document reproduction. This site will continue to be monitored through the winter under the guidance of Forest Service biologists in the Entiat Ranger District and Pacific Northwest Research Lab in hopes of achieving our goals. Additionally, to aid in identification, gun brushes will be added to collect hair samples for DNA analysis. Site Name Target Species Date Installed Date Uninstalled Lure/Bait Ice Lake Wolverine 16-Aug-2013 N/A* Both Union Gap Wolverine 9-Jun-2013 21-Sep-2013 Both North Cascades Camera Sites

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