Wolves Return to Washington!

Ten years after launching our first wilderness survey using remote cameras, Conservation Northwest on Monday captured images of six wolf pups and an adult. Two collared adults from the central Washington wolf pack–the "Lookout Pack"–were confirmed as 100% wolf with DNA testing by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The Lookout Pack of the Methow Valley is the first wolf pack documented in Washington since the 1930s.

The return of wolves to the Cascades is exciting news. It's a welcome sign of our changing–and improving–relationship to the natural world: wolves making Washington home once more. Join us in celebrating! Comment on our blog.

[Listen to the wolf pups howl!] ~ [Wolves on flip-book, watch them in action] ~ [Lynnwood, Aug. 8: let the wildlife commission know that you welcome wolves back] ~ [On King 5 news] ~ [It's in the P-I]

Other Wildlife We Know and Love

Cryptic, charismatic, and rare...Washington's wolverines are the ultimate survivors, able to live in mountains that routinely get 20 feet of snow. But can they survive the Bush administration? Read international conservation director Joe Scott's blog entry on our work to protect this fine and ferocious creature.

Of the 1,900 remaining mountain caribou, a herd of thirty or so of these stately animals roam the southern Selkirks into northeastern Washington. This month the BC government issued legal orders to protect 2.2 million hectares of caribou habitat–more than 5 million acres–from logging and road building, in a follow-up to last fall's successful agreement to recover dwindling populations. We're in the process of reviewing those rules, with the future of caribou in mind.

[ Bedeviling the government to gain protection for wolverines] ~ [ "The Last Place on Earth," inland temperate rainforest home to mountain caribou] ~ [Darkwoods Forest: Saved for caribou?]

 

Fieldwork those Desk Blues Away

Come join us in our active summertime outdoor programs. If you live on the east side of the state, attend a work party to improve and maintain trails in wildlands. If you're from west of the Cascades crest, help us restore wildlife habitat by pulling non-native plants. And should you crave even more exercise, explore the option of joining our wildlife monitoring team! Or simply... go for a hike in one of the many wild places in Washington we're working to protect.

[ We give you sexy work gloves. You keep them!] ~ [Slide in to a photo slideshow on wildlife monitoring] ~ [ Help restore Gold Creek as part of Checkerboard Outings Day] ~ [ Carpool from Spokane for a weekend wilderness work party] ~ [Summit Grassy Top in the Hall Mountain Roadless Area]

 

"Freedom Don't Come Free" for ORVs

Just thirty or forty years ago, our more self-reliant predecessors had the freedom to access unimaginably vast tracks of unspoiled wilderness in which to hunt, fish, hike, camp, and explore among abundant native wildlife and relatively intact ecosystems. That changed across much of the West's public lands, not overnight or after a national public process such as what is now unfolding around the off-road vehicle (ORV) issue, but one road, clearcut, and acre of wild country lost at a time.... Read more on ORVs in northeastern Washington from sportsman and staff writer, Derrick Knowles.

We need photos and stories of ORV abuse you've encountered on public and private lands to better advocate for reigning in the lawless destruction of illegal ORV use. Please email them to us today.

[ How the Forest Service is planning for ORV and public access in eastside national forests] ~ [A story of mudding–and meadows]