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Species documented at Gold Creek North and Gold Creek South was of particular interest this
season due to the recent completion of two wildlife underpasses at Gold Creek. Over the past
few years, construction of Gold Creek underpass has been ongoing; however, 2013 marked the
end of structural construction of the underpass. Construction equipment and activity still
remains within the underpasses during the construction season this year, and restoration of
habitat within the underpasses began to compliment the continued habitat restoration adjacent
to these structures. As this underpass transitions from construction to restoration, continued
monitoring of the underpass is important to record wildlife as they use the structure. During
this season our cameras remain in the habitat approaches to the underpasses, while in winter
we monitor directly within the underpass. The recording of five species in habitat adjacent to
these new crossing structures speaks to their potential use by wildlife to safely cross under I-90.
Table 6: Species detected at sites in the I-90 corridor.
South Cascades
The South Cascades, defined as south of I-90, represents the Southern Recovery Zone as
designated in the Washington Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. To date, no wolves
have been confirmed south of I-90. However, anecdotal reports have placed wolves in this area
for years. Wolves over the past five years have quickly expanded from packs in northeast and
central Washington. Now, three packs have made the North Cascades home, two of which are
just north of I-90 in the Teanaway and Wenatchee areas. As wolves recover in the state,
documenting their dispersal to new areas of Washington is crucial to inform land and species
management of wolves.
As a result, nine of our ten monitoring sites in the Southern Cascades were dedicated to wolves
(Table 7). The exception being Lookout Mountain, which was a run-pole site focused on
wolverine detection just south of Mount Rainier on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. All sites
were located in the Cle Elum and Naches Ranger Districts of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National
Forest, and in a new region for our program in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. CWMP
