Citizen wildlife monitors in Washington state were busy this summer camera trapping in Washington’s Central and North Cascades.
Conservation Northwest, the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition, and the Wilderness Awareness School sponsor the Cascades Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project.
The project’s goal is “to engage and educate citizens” as wildlife investigators along a 15-mile-segment of the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass highway.
They set their 43 camera traps in the woods, and were rewarded with thousands of images, including some rarities like gray wolf and Canada lynx.
Lynx were previously more widespread in Washington, but it seems that breeding wolves were completely unexpected.
Neat.
Read about it here, and be sure to check out the links.
Among the commenters are farsighted individuals who don't want taxpayer money wasted on wildlife corridors because elk-wildlife collisions don't affect them. (Aren't they the ones who holler the loudest when an elk totals their car?)
Thanks to Professor Tenaza for the link. (Hey, Rich when are we gonna check the cams in Marin?)
About Me
- Camera Trap Codger
- Native Californian, biologist, wildlife conservation consultant, retired Smithsonian scientist, father of two daughters, grandfather of four. INTJ. Believes nature is infinitely more interesting than shopping malls. Born 100 years too late.
8 comments:
Thanks Codgers for enlightening me again which I always appreciate. Great to see people involved in projects like this.
Me too...the more people know about wildlife the more apt (usually) they are to protect it...seems to me.
I am sure my dog found a lynx up at the cabin where I used to live. He alerted, but didn't hurt the cat (nor was he hurt!)...I found it marvelous and almost spiritual to have seen such a big ol' cat right were I lived. I've never seen a Mtn Lion...but still; a lynx is pretty big!
I hope knowledge of breeding wolves doesn't outrage ranchers suddenly sure they're decimating their herds. [sigh]
I just love stories like this one...thank you again!
I read the same article in our local paper, but the comments you refered to suprised me.
Like they should give out the GPS location on their cameras. I would try for the Lynx in a heartbeat.
Hmmmm. I understand if folks are shy to give out the GPS coordinates of their camera traps Cliff. A good Reconyx runs in the neighborhood of $600+. Even with our cameras padlocked to trees, my group has seen our camera traps taken. And while in at least one case we are convinced a bear took advantage of slack in our chain and lock to wiggle a box lose and drag a camera off, in another case we came back to find the padlock missing and a camera-free bear box still on the tree.
It's nice to share your photos with folks. It's even nice to share the general location (i.e. these were taken in "such and such State Park"). But I don't think I'd share the exact GPS location of any of my traps, for multiple reasons.
I would agree with Jeremy on the question of sharing the exact location.
You never know who is looking at these blogs.
I think my post came out wrong, I was suprised that the comments wanted them to give out the GPS coordinates, can't think of anyone that would tell that info on their game cameras.
I think we are all on the same page regarding GPS locations of our cams. No need to make them into high stakes geocaches.
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