Color Scheme

Subscribe now

Wolverine study training volunteers in Sandpoint

One of two wolverines photographed by Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department researchers using a motion activated camera at a baited camera station on April 13, 2011 in the Wallowa Mountains. (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife)
By Rich Landers richl@spokesman.com(509) 459-5508

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.
Interested? RSVP by Thursday to mustelids@scotchmanpeaks.org to take the Bait Station Leader training.
If you are interested in helping with this project, but would rather not be a Bait Station Leader, please respond to info@scotchmanpeaks.org
The Friends of the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness group is giving the wolverine research a big boost by helping to secure funding as well as providing manpower.
Click here for more information on wolverine research .

* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "Outdoors Blog." Read all stories from this blog