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Southern Cascades, during the CWMP 2013 monitoring season we focused our efforts on
responding to anecdotal reports of wolf activity south of I-90.
WOLVERINE MONITORING
The largest terrestrial members of the weasel family, wolverines are one of the rarest carnivores
in North America.
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Wolverines prefer alpine environments where snow packs persist well into
summer months. In addition to living in these difficult environments where food is scarce,
wolverines are extremely mobile carnivores with home ranges between 100 km² to upwards of
900 km²; this means they typically live in low densities across large landscapes.
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After almost
complete eradication in the 1900s from the lower 48 states, wolverines have begun a comeback
to places such as the North Cascades; and since 2005, state researchers have identified a dozen
individual wolverines. But much is still unknown about these rare and elusive species, and
that's where the Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project comes in.
Though currently unprotected, wolverines are candidates for endangered status under the
Endangered Species Act at both the federal and state levels. In 2014, the USFWS is planning to
publish their final ruling on the listing status for wolverine nationwide.
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Conservation
Northwest and other organizations are pushing decision makers to create state and federal
safeguards for wolverines as they recover across Washington and the lower 48 states.
Through CWMP monitoring activities, Conservation Northwest will help shape recovery and
critical habitat plans for Washington, inform land management, and build upon ongoing
research in the Cascades. Our goals for wolverine monitoring in 2013 were to 1) help the Entiat
Ranger District of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest monitor wolverines' presence in
the Entiat Valley in the Glacier Peak Wilderness in the North Cascades, with a specific interest
in documenting Sasha, a potentially denning and reproducing female wolverine, 2) document
the presence of wolverines in the Central and Southern Cascades; and 3) collect genetic data
through hair samples to help identify individual wolverines documented. In 2013, our
wolverine monitoring continued in the Chiwaukum and Bootjack Mountains where our remote
cameras have documented four individual wolverines to date. To ensure that our efforts add to
existing research, we focus on areas that lie outside of the current study area established by the
7
Keith B. Aubry, Kevin S. Mckelvey, and Jeffrey P. Copeland, "Distribution and Broadscale Habitat
Relations of the Wolverine in the Contiguous United States," Journal of Wildlife Management 71, no. 7
(2007): 2147, doi:10.2193/2006-548.; Vivian Banci, "Wolverine," in The Scientific Basis for Conserving Forest
Carnivores: American Marten, Fisher, Lynx, and Wolverine in the Western United States., ed. Leonard F.
Ruggiero et al. (Fort Collins, Colorado, USA: USDA Forest Service Technical Report, 1994), 99–127.
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Banci, "Wolverine."
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Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife December 17, 2013,press release: fws.gov/mountain-
prairie/pressrel/2013/12172013_wolverine.php
