Summer Results

The summer season has come to an end.  Thanks to all your help, we were able to get new information on 3 different target species, as well many other carnivores.

Here's what we found.

Wolves
A wolf pack is now confirmed to be on the Warm Springs Reservation.  They also utilize parts of the Mt Hood National Forest, as seen in the photo below.  Now that the pack is established, the questions become: will they be able to survive in the area long term and where will they disperse to next?  We now need to keep on eye on the rest of the forest and see where they show up next!

Sierra Nevada Red Fox
Two cameras got Sierra Nevada red fox detections this summer, Lambertson Butte and Meadows West.  The photo from Lambertson Butte went unnoticed until recently - the fox passed quickly and only left this one blurry photo.  But that is enough! 

The Meadows West camera detected two different individuals when it was up last winter, based on their coat color. The pictures this summer could be one of the same individuals. 

Here are the two individuals from the winter:

And here's the pictures from this summer:

From the grid of cameras we had in the Meadows area, one tentative conclusion is that these fox prefer the higher elevation locations, at least during the summer.

Marten
Marten are known to live in high elevation, closed canopy forest, and their pictures from Lambertson Butte, Newton Upper, Meadows Ski Lift, Meadows West, and Meadows Buildings confirm this.  But this summer we also got one unusal sighting - from Lemiti Creek!  This site borders the Ollallie Lakes area, where they are known to live, but the site itself is in a young lodgepole pine forest that is still recovering from a severe burn.  It has a thick regenerating layer of trees less than 10 ftt tall, but hardly any large trees at all.  The camera only picked up one picture before it failed for the rest of the summer.  Too bad!  It would be great to know more about this individual.

Here's a marten from the camera near Mt Hood Meadows Resort:

And here's the one blurry picture from Lemiti Creek:

Final tally
Here's the final tally of what we found this summer.

The winner for the greatest number of species goes to Jackpot Meadows, and the winner for the least number of species - but still getting a target species - is tied between Lemiti Creek, Newton Upper, and Meadows Ski Lift. 

Having so much information on many different species, for many years, has creeated a great opportunity to detect any changes to the wildlife community now that wolves have moved in.  We look forward to continuing the study in the years to come!

Thank you all for a great season!!