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/947352
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project uses trained volunteers to record the presence and movement of wildlife through snow tracking surveys and remote camera installations in the Washington Cascades and other wildlands across Washington State and British Columbia. This report summarizes snow-tracking efforts for the winter of 2015-2016. This field season marked the tenth winter of snow-tracking along Interstate 90, east of Snoqualmie Pass. Early copious snow that stayed on the ground through the start of March made for much better tracking conditions this winter than last. Conditions were characterized by deep powder snow for the first part of the season and heavy, wet snow often accompanied by rain in the latter part. Both sets of conditions offer tracking challenges by obscuring tracks and sign, but despite this, we were able to regain our standard number of transect visits for the season. All transects were visited at least 3 times this season. Construction around the Price-Noble transects forced the project to significantly alter how teams access these transects. Additionally, a potential new transect was scouted west of Snoqualmie Pass in conjunction with the Washington Department of Transportation. No high priority species were recorded. This year we introduced new smartphone software for data collection in the field: Collector for ArcGIS. After initial rollout glitches, the software made it possible for teams to collect and upload data regardless of phone connectivity and to associate photos with observations. Team leaders also participated in a professional evaluation and certification of their wildlife tracking skills as a part of our ongoing assessment of observer reliability. PROJECT OVERVIEW The Cascades Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project (CCWMP) is a joint project led by Conservation Northwest, I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition, and the Wilderness Awareness School. The program utilizes remote cameras year-round to document rare and sensitive species throughout core areas in the Cascades, as well as for more common species in strategically important locations. During the winter months, trained CCWMP volunteers use snow tracking to monitor the presence, location, and movement of wildlife near proposed wildlife crossing sites east of Snoqualmie Pass along Interstate 90 in the Washington Cascades. Since its inception, CCWMP has remained an asset to wildlife agencies and professionals by providing supplemental monitoring efforts in areas identified as either potential core habitat or vital connectivity corridors between core habitats for some of our region's rarest wildlife. Our main project objectives are: 1. To engage and educate citizens about the detection and monitoring of sensitive wildlife species and in critical habitat areas; 2. To record wildlife presence in the I-90 corridor and along the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project in strategic locations and in core habitat through remote cameras and snow tracking; 3. To record the presence of rare and sensitive species that regional and national conservation efforts aim to recover including fisher, gray wolf, grizzly bear, lynx, and wolverine;