Wildlife monitoring
Through wildlife field monitoring we help document the presence and range of rare carnivores from the Cascades to the Selkirks.
Documenting animals in the wild
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- Our first remote camera lynx, 2001
Our wildlife monitoring project volunteers are on the frontlines, tracking wildlife where state and federal agencies don’t have the resources to go, from the Cascades to the Kettle Crest. 2012 was one of our best seasons yet [VIDEO].
Our most active program is the Cascades Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project. Get involved!
Since 2001, Conservation Northwest has monitored in wild areas in Washington for the presence of wild and often little-seen animals of the Northwest, including lynx, wolverine, pine marten, wolf, and grizzly bear. Working in concert with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), the project began as the Rare Carnivore Remote Camera Project. We work with other agencies to provide
Like our citizen science? Adopt a camera team. Or volunteer.
Together we have documented rare carnivores in the roadless forests of the North Cascades, Kettle River Range, and Selkirk Mountains, all the while coordinating with state and federal agency biologists.
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- A camera team gets close
In 2008, our volunteer-operated cameras documented the first wild wolf pups born in Washington, bringing to light the natural return of wolves to Washington for the first time in 70 years. In 2011, our teams documented a new pack in the Teanaway, just 90 miles east of Seattle.
Spring through fall, we place motion-triggered remote cameras in wild locations to capture photos and document wildlife presence. And in winter, we find and follow animal tracks to document wildlife travel patterns.
We also record and analyze the results.
Visit our Flickr site for recent remote camera photos
To volunteer, contact Kit McGurn. Get on our volunteer email list so that you can be the first to learn of our next field opportunity.
The landscape of monitoring
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- Fisher, reintroduced to the Olympic Peninsula
Currently, citizen wildlife monitors work around the state:
In the north and central Cascades, particularly on the lands near Snoqualmie Pass and Interstate 90, an area critical for wildlife from bear to wolverine to elk.
On the Olympic Peninsula, documenting Pacific fishers which Conservation Northwest helped reintroduce to Washington's forests, teaming up with WDFW, the National Park Service, and the Forest Service.
In northeast Washington on the Colville National Forest, together with the Colville National Forest and a experienced team of volunteers, to record the presence of lynx, wolves, and pine martens in the Kettle River Range.
Confirming presence of rare carnivores informs land management decisions upon which our wildlife depend. And it's people like our citizen monitors with boots on the ground as citizen scientists gathering that data and photo.
