Chattermarks

North Cascades Highway is nearly open. The snowmobiles are put away, the traps are closed for the season and the wolverine crew has moved on to other endeavors. A few camera stations wait to be collected—hopefully holding a few late-season wolverine pictures on the memory cards. Yet there is one last aspect of the 2010 season that we all wait on.

Somewhere on a shelf in the office are vials with dates and GPS coordinates carefully recorded. Inside is blue desiccant and wolverine hair. In a drying box outside the office door is a collection of wolverine scat. This is the culmination of yet another aspect of the wolverine study in the North Cascades—following wolverine tracks to collect hair and scat.

To this end, members of the crew took several trips into the backcountry in search of the elusive wolverine. Multi-night trips. Backcountry skis and sunblock. Other people do this sort of thing for fun, but this was for science. Someone had to do it, right? In our defense, it is a bit of work. Heavy packs and cold nights. And a lot of GPS work. Everything had to be recorded—the exact route followed, any tracks encountered, and a plethora of details of weather and snow conditions. Not your usual backcountry trip in search of slopes of deep powder. A scientific expedition in search of wolverine tracks. But hopefully a few good turns in the process.

(Title) In search of wolverine tracks on the east side of the Pasayten Wilderness (Above) Brandon and Adam begin their search on the way to Sawtooth Crest

» Continue reading The magic of wolverine tracking

Puma, Mountain Lion, Cougar…..regardless of nomenclature this incredible animal is synonymous with elusive. Many could spend a lifetime in cougar habitat and never glimpse even a sign of its presence. So after my initial sighting of tracks earlier this year, following our first big snows of the season, I knew how fortunate I was to live in this amazing, wild place. Since that time I have had the privilege of tracking this animal on numerous occasions, noting that the cougar seems to travel in similar areas and patterns.

With the coming of spring, the snow around the Learning Center has changed into all forms of slush, perfect for tracking.  My most recent snowy adventure led to a fun and notable discovery, two sets of tracks heading in the same direction and at the same time. Has the spring brought about a mate for our solitary feline? Only time will tell.  And don’t worry, I’ll do my part and monitor our cougar neighbor as long as I can.

Winter may be time for hibernation, but spring is fast approaching, ready or not! Our field excursions have been hitting the trails the past few weekends and watching the signs and cycles of of change. Last weekend the Nooksack Snowshoe excursion went to the riverbed again. No hoar crystals anymore, but there was plenty to see. We checked out elk tracks, followed a female coyote preparing for pups and traced a set a of striped skunk tracks directly to the source! (“Whoa, everybody take a step back, there she is!”)

» Continue reading Gettin’ out on the flats…

I’ve recently taken up a new hobby, I like to call it twig tracking.
I started twig tracking to feel more connected, to feel at home in all seasons. Twig tracking is just a fancy name for native plant identification through the cold winter months. It sounds a lot more exciting if you call it twig tracking.

» Continue reading Twig tracking

The recent temperature inversion set has had a noticeable effect in the cities, with cold freezing fog, but up in the mountains that same phenomena has been creating sunny skies and melt-freeze sun crusts on the snow. On Saturday morning we headed up the North Fork of the Nooksack River to check out what kinds of goings-on happen in the winter. It was pretty cold, and the snow was very crusty.

An elk track in the crust on the riverbed

» Continue reading Tracking through crystals