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Of note at one of the Blue Lake Ridge installations is the high volume of cougar detections. This was due to a
mother and three cubs remaining at a deer kill for almost a week. During the day, the mother left the cubs in
the clearing where the camera trap was installed, and the cubs played in front of the camera. This installation
has been in the same location for multiple seasons, and provides excellent results. Our volunteers report
seeing or smelling several carcasses in the area. Though we do encourage volunteers to install cameras near a
carcass if they find one, this installation was in place before the deer was killed.
Rimrock Lake and Lone Butte, which had high snowshoe hare and small mammal detections had cameras set
up facing logs, which hosted very active squirrels and chipmunks that triggered the camera hundreds of times
(Table 4). White Pass saw quite a few more human visitor events than the other wolf survey areas because it
was located on a gravel road that appears to be a training route for the local cross-country team.
GENERAL WILDLIFE ALONG THE INTERSTATE 90 CORRIDOR
The I-90 survey areas monitored previously-established and novel locations within the I-90 corridor (15-mile
stretch along I-90 between Hyak, at milepost 54, and Easton, at milepost 70)(Table 5). The three survey areas,
each consisting of two camera installations, totaled six discreet locations being monitored. These installations
are established in the I-90 corridor to detect general wildlife movement and presence in relation to the
interstate.
Map credit: Taylor McDowell, Intern, Conservation Northwest
