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CWMP is designed to support the conservation of our region's wildlife and wildlands by
enhancing our knowledge of wildlife-habitat connections in our region, supporting the
monitoring and management efforts of transportation and wildlife agencies, and providing
engaging educational field experiences for volunteers.
The winter portion of CWMP is focused on snow-tracking along a 15-mile corridor on I-90
providing wildlife presence data to the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project. In previous years,
data from winter remote camera monitoring has also been reported in our 2014-2015 Winter
Monitoring Report. However, this year to create more continuity and robustness of the
program, all remote camera data will be reported on an annual cycle. The 2015 Remote Camera
Monitoring Report will be made available in early 2016.
The I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project is a 15-mile highway improvement project that includes
measures for connecting wildlife habitat, including construction of wildlife crossings.
Construction on the first phase of the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project has started with
funding from the Washington State Legislature. Construction activities were not active during
the snow-tracking season.
A complete description of the project's goals and methods, as well as a record of previous
season reports, is available online at www.conservationnw.org/monitoring. This winter we
have begun the process of analysis of several data sets from the project as we look towards
publication of results of our findings from the project thus far. Topics we are exploring include:
the efficacy of our citizen science model, a comparison of the effectiveness of various non-
invasive research methods, behavioral observations of wildlife in relationship to the interstate,
and the relationship of wildlife presence north and south of the Interstate prior to the start of
crossing structure construction.
METHODOLOGY
Study Area
Snoqualmie Pass (3022 feet, 921 meters) is the lowest pass in the Washington Cascades.
Interstate 90 traverses the pass from west to east. A large downhill ski complex sits at the
summit of the pass, along with associated human infrastructure. A few miles east of the pass a
large irrigation water reservoir on the headwaters of the Yakima River fills much of the valley
bottom. The human footprint at the pass along with the high speed and heavily trafficked
interstate highway makes Snoqualmie Pass the most tenuous wildlife corridor in the
Washington Cascades. Ongoing reconstruction by the Washington Department of
Transportation on Interstate 90 east of Snoqualmie Pass has been designed to improve road
safety for motorists and increase the permeability of the road for wildlife.
