Conservation Northwest protects and connects old-growth forests and other wild areas from the Washington Coast to the British Columbia Rockies, vital to a healthy future for us, our children, and wildlife. Since 1989, Conservation Northwest has worke
Issue link: http://conservationnw.uberflip.com/i/947349
3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY For over a decade, the Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project has used remote cameras and snow tracking to conduct research related to the study of Washington's rare and sensitive wildlife through citizen science. The Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project has also been engaged in monitoring wildlife presence and activity in critical areas for wildlife connectivity, conservation, and habitat, primarily in the Interstate 90 (I-90) corridor in the central Washington Cascades. Citizen scientists contribute valuable new information about the presence and patterns of wildlife in our state. Our project efforts cover geographic areas beyond those of ongoing professional research efforts, supplementing and strengthening the work of agencies, biologists, and others. During the 2015 season, 62 volunteers in the Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project installed and maintained installations in 23 survey areas in Washington and British Columbia. Our survey areas were focused on monitoring in Washington's Cascade Mountains and the Kettle River Range (the Kettle River Range encompasses southeastern British Columbia and Ferry County, Washington, in the United States). The main objectives for the 2015 field season were to 1) detect the presence of gray wolf (Canis lupus) in the Southern Cascades, 2) detect the presence of wolverine (Gulo gulo) in new locations and continue to monitor known populations in the North and South Cascades, 3) attempt to detect grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone (Appendix I), 4) monitor the presence of a wide variety of species of wildlife between Hyak and Easton adjacent to I90, and 5) document transboundary Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) activity between northeast Washington and British Columbia. With the assistance of Conservation Northwest program staff and our Advisory Council (listed in Acknowledgements), we established nine survey areas in the North Cascades, three survey areas in the I-90 corridor, and nine survey areas in the South Cascades (regions are defined on pages 5-6 of this report). There were also two survey areas in the transboundary Kettle River Range for lynx monitoring this season. Our partners at Selkirk College in British Columbia maintained four installations on the BC side of the border, while program volunteers managed two installations at Hope Mountain on the Washington side of the border. Over the course of the 2015 season, we detected thirteen recordable species. Highlights from this field season include: The continued documentation of wolverines in the Cascades. These wolverines appear to be on the front lines of recovery for the species in our region. Wolverines were documented at Ice Lakes, Blackjack Ridge and Chiwaukum in the North Cascades. A photo of a wolverine's chest blaze at our Chiwaukum installation allowed our advisers with the Forest Service to identify it as an individual who has visited the survey area in the past, its first visit being in April of 2014. Unfortunately, we have yet to obtain genetic samples so we cannot ID the individual. It may be a wolverine with an existing genetic profile, or it may be a new individual. There were four detection events at the Chiwaukum survey area, one detection event at Blackjack Ridge, and eight detection events at Ice Lakes, but we were not able to identify the individual wolverines, which means we are uncertain about the number of individuals that visited our installations.