WILDLIFE RESEARCH — More than 40 volunteers showed up for a training course on Dec. 3 to learn how to use their expertise in backcountry snowshoeing or ski touring to help researchers study wolverines.

It's already paid off.  Read on for the big news from last week.

Idaho Fish and Game wildlife biologists taught them how to rig up bait and install wire gun-cleaning brushes in the bait tree to snag hair for DNA testing as the critters climb up for the free meal. They also learned about trail cams and traveling safely through avalanche terrain.

Now they're out doing it in the wilds of the Cabinet mountains northeast of Lake Pend Oreille, as you see by the photos. The going's tough, but that's why many of them signed up. There's nothing better that having a purpose for going into the winter backcountry.

The Friends of the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness is providing the backbone of the financial support and the base of volunteers that came to the classes before heading into the field. 

Oh, yeah. The big news:

After checking their first round of rare forest carnivore monitoring stations last week, Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologists discovered a wolverine had been caught on camera in the Selkirk Mountains of North Idaho.  The biologists have confirmed the wolverine visited the station twice.  The story is to be continued… but click “continue reading” below to see one more photo of what volunteers are going through to support this research.

ENDANGERED SPECIES — Volunteers with skills to travel deep into the backcountry on skis or snowshoes are being trained for monitoring bait stations involved in an Idaho-Montana wolverine research project.

Wolverines are a backcountry-loving secretive member of the weasel family protected by the Endangered Species Act.

A “Bait Station Leader” training course will be held Saturday, (Dec. 3) from noon to 5 p.m. at the Sandpoint Ranger District offices at 1602 Ontario. (Another is planned for Jan. 14.) The program:

• Idaho Fish and Game Department biologists Michael Lucid and Lacy Robinson will hold a session on bait station construction and maintenance.
• Kevin Davis of the Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center will give an avalanche training.
• Hang out with mustelid and winter tracking expert Brian Baxter in the classroom and then in the woods and learn more about who you are sharing the forest with. 
• A talk winter travel basics also will be presented.

WILDLIFE RESEARCH — Wolverine research in North Idaho and northwestern Montana got a big boost Friday from an online voting campaign spearheaded by the Friends of the Scotchman-Peaks Wilderness.

The group generated enough enthusiasm and web clicks from supporters to win a public vote for a $29,700 grant from Zoo Boise. The wolverine study proposal written by FSPW executive Phil Hough will enable Idaho Fish and Game Deparment researchers to continue their study and upgrade their research on the reclusive creatures in the Selkirk and Cabinet mountains.

Job opportunity: The grant will help fund a part-time wolverine study coordinator.  Check here for the job description and application.

WILDLIFE RESEARCH — The Friends of the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness are asking people to vote online before Oct. 28 to help them garner nearly $30,000 in grants from Zoo Boise that would be applied to wolverine research in North Idaho.

Visit the Zoo Boise projects website for details. Review the the wolverine proposal and the seven other finalists and then vote for your two favorites in each category. The four projects with the most votes will each receive a grants. One vote per person is allowed.

The Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness has partnered with Idaho Fish and Game and the Idaho Conservation League on a proposal for an Idaho Panhandle Wolverine Study.

Wolverines (Gulo gulo) were recently classified as ‘warranted but precluded’ for listing as a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Only about 35 breeding wolverine females are roaming the lower 48 states.

Read on for more details about the North Idaho project.

WILDLIFE - Two researches will present what they learned from studies on fishers and wolverines in the Cabinet and Selkirk mountains in a free program Thursday, 6 p.m., at the East Bonner County Library in Sandpoint.

Idaho Fish and Game Department biologists Lacy Robinson and Michael Lucid, along with area volunteers on snowshoes and snowmobiles have been setting bait stations and cameras in remote areas to survey for the elusive members of the weasel family.

The photographs tell much of the story.

The researchers got help from snowmobilers where the machines are allowed, but when they ventured into more remote areas, they were helped by snowshoers from the Friends of the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness to help install, monitor and remove bait sets designed to catch wolverines - on film.

“We didn't photograph any wolverines,” says FSPW program coordinator Sandy Compton, ” at least not in the Cabinets, but we did catch a lot of their cousins.” In both ranges, cameras caught portraits of fishers, pine martens and weasels, as well as the occasional surprise visitor. In the Selkirks, they also caught a wolverine.

In 12 study stations, remote cameras were trained on trees baited with beaver carcasses and household sponges soaked with smelly concoctions designed to attract mustelids and be hard enough to get to that the critters would have to leave a little something behind to get a bite of the beaver.

Gun brushes and double-sided sticky tape placed below the beaver gathered hair samples from each animal that went for the bait. This was collected and is being analyzed for DNA, which will give Robinson and Lucid an idea of how many individual animals visited the bait stations.
  

RARE SPECIES — Five days after discovering the first documented wolverine tracks in the Wallowa Mountains of Northeast Oregon, researcher Audrey Magoun has downloaded photos of two wolverines from a bait station camera.

“They are clearly photos of two different individuals,” Magoun said.

The photos were taken on April 2 and 13 at a bait station in the Eagle Cap Wilderness and downloaded on Friday.

The set of tracks discovered on April 17 was the first confirmation of a wolverine in Wallowa County.

Read on for more details.

WILDLIFE — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the wolverine should be to be added to the list of endangered and threatened species, the Associated Press reported this morning.

But, the federal agency adds, adding the wolverine now is precluded by higher priorities — that is, other species considered in greater danger.

The agency says in a decision posted Monday that the small mammal known for its ferocity will be added to the candidate species list.

This still could have an impact on snowmobiling and other backcountry activities.

The Fish and Wildlife Service says wolverine’s range in the U.S. includes portions of Montana, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, Utah and California.

While Washington State has experienced a flurry of wolverine activity in recent years, fewer than 500 wolverines survive in the lower 48, and a recent study found that just 35 individuals are breeding successfully in the western United States, according to Conservation Northwest.

Since 2005, federal researchers have been tracking seven wolverines in the North Cascades, and have learned that Washington’s wolverines have significantly larger home ranges than wolverines elsewhere.  Other sightings have been reported from Mount Baker near Bellingham to Mount Adams in southern Washington. 

Two years ago, the agency found the wolverine was not eligible for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. Environmentalists sued, and last year the agency agreed to issue a new finding.