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Wildlife Monitoring
The Rare Carnivore Remote Camera Project documents the presence and range of rare carnivores from the North Cascades and Central Cascades to the Selkirks.
Documenting animals in the wild
Since 2001 in and around north and central Washington, Conservation Northwest has monitored for presence of wild and often little-seen animals of the Northwest, including lynx, wolverine, pine marten, and wolf, coordinating with state and federal agency biologists. We've placed remote-sensing cameras in the backcountry, coordinated, and most recently joined in on winter snow tracking of rare wildlife.
What began as the Rare Carnivore Remote Camera Project blossomed over the years to include winter tracking. Volunteers place and monitor cameras in the field (the remote cameras are triggered by movement and heat; baiting a nearby tree with scent lure interests animals and brings them in close) and document winter tracks and travel patterns. Later in 2008, we hope to add to our citizen monitoring efforts in the Olympics to track the success of newly introduced fisher to the landscape.
Our wildlife monitoring program helps document the presence and range of rare carnivores in the roadless forests of the Cascades, Kettle River Range, and Selkirks. Volunteers and staff conduct the project out of our Spokane, Bellingham, and Seattle offices.
The Cascades Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project and its volunteers cover Washington's Cascades with a large focus on connectivity areas around I-90 and in the North Cascades.
Watch a slideshow of wildlife taken by remote camera in Washington.
The I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition funds the equipment and the US Fish and Wildlife Service provides the training and technical oversight. Conservation Northwest coordinates the monitoring volunteers, all of whom are made to backpack, ski, or snowshoe into gorgeous and remote wild places: to set and service cameras, take photos of tracks, and otherwise document wildlife movement.
Confirming presence of rare carnivores informs land management decisions upon which our wildlife depend. And it's people like you taking us there!