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yearly monitoring objectives and site locations. Councilmembers assist in developing our
protocols, confirm identification of priority images from the season, and provide a scientific
audience for results gained in the field from hair samples to tracks. These collaborations
between project partners and advisors are crucial to the success of the program year to year.
Collaboration keeps our efforts scientifically informed and relevant, ensures coordination rather
than duplication of monitoring efforts statewide, and adds valuable on the ground information
to the conservation community.
Monitoring seasons are broken into two terms: April – November (Spring-Fall) remote camera
monitoring and December – March (Winter) remote camera monitoring and snow tracking. At
the finale of each season a monitoring report is prepared and made public through
Conservation Northwest's website (conservationnw.org/what-we-do/northcascades/cascades-
citizen-wildlife-monitoring). For the purposes of this report, we focus here on our results from
the 2013 Spring-Fall monitoring season.
This season, we concentrated our study area in two distinct regions – the Cascade Mountains in
Washington and the Rossland Range in British Columbia (the Rossland Range lies east of the
Kettle Mountains, between the Kettle and Columbia Rivers). Within the Cascade Mountains, we
have refined the study area into four distinct regions:
1. North Cascades: North of US 2 and west of US 97
2. Central Cascades: Between I-90 and US 2
3. I-90 Corridor: Between Hyak and Easton along I-90
4. Southern Cascades: South of I-90
At the start of each season, monitoring objectives are established by project staff with feedback
and guidance from the Advisory Council. These objectives are typically in response to current
statewide priority species and habitat identified as important for these species. In 2013, our
Spring-Fall monitoring objectives were to:
1. Monitor the recovery of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the Cascade Mountains, with a
particular focus on the Southern Recovery Zone. These sites were identified to respond
to identified high-quality habitat where wolves are expected to expand their existing
range and recover.
2. Document the presence of wolverines (Gulo gulo) in the North, Central, and Southern
Cascades outside of the geographic scope of the ongoing North Cascades Wolverine
