Snowtracking and remote camera work by citizen volunteers

Watch a YouTube video from a participating citizen camera maintained in the Teanaway

The Cascades Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project engages citizens on the ground to better understand wildlife movement and presence on both sides of the Cascades crest, combining wintertime snowtracking with year-long remote camera work.

The project is fiscally sponsored and managed by the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition in collaboration with the Wilderness Awareness School and Conservation Northwest.

The Wilderness Awareness School trains volunteers to run wintertime transects in habitat near wildlife crossing structures proposed for Interstate 90. Teams enter the field three times from December to March to take record the presence of priority wildlife, including bear and wolverine, in the Cascades. The tracking stories that result are fun and varied, from trailing a pine marten in the Hyak corridor to identifying cougar tracks near the proposed Rock Knob overpass on I-90.

The remote camera effort is led by the experience of our organization's work over the years on our Rare Carnivore Remote Camera Project. Currently, about seventy volunteers have been trained for our 2008 field season to place cameras at locations that include key connectivity locations along I-90 as well as core habitats throughout the Cascades. We also reserve several cameras in the office to respond to wildlife sightings as they occur throughout the year. This year we will be placing cameras in the Pasayten Wilderness, Twisp River, Gold Creek, Hyak Creek, Kendall Peak, Price/Noble Creek, Teanaway River, North Cascades National Park, Twin Lakes, Crater Moraine, and Manastash Ridge.

Final results from all data collected from snow tracking and other sources are worked into a report each year that can be viewed along with photos.

Thanks to our excellent citizen volunteers as well as our expert advisory team members for their ongoing contributions to the project.

The Cascades Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project's advisory council taps the expertise and advice of Bill Gaines (Wenatchee-Okanogan National Forest), Chris Morgan (Grizzly Bear Outreach Project), Dave Moskowitz (Wilderness Awareness School), Don Gay (Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest), Jesse Plumage (Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest), Keith Aubrey (US Forest Service), Robert Long (Western Transportation Institute), Roger Christopherson (North Cascades National Park), and Conservation Northwest's own Joe Scott.

And a big shout out to Defenders of Wildlife for partnering to sponsor two cameras in 2008 with their volunteers!

For further information please contact Jen Watkins.