HOME RANGE WILDLIFE RESEARCH

“I’m Margaret Burgess, a Junior Biology major [at Whitman College]. This summer I joined the powerhouse team of women behind Home Range Wildlife Research, a nonprofit based in Winthrop, WA dedicated to wildlife conservation and education. I worked on their Lynx and Wildfire project collecting fuels data and setting wildlife cameras. So what did that look like? Field days were full of excitement and many miles of bushwhacking. My field partner and I would usually meet at the office in town and then drive out to the study area on a heavily washboarded old logging road. During my internship a section of the road washed out due to thunderstorms, but that wasn’t about to stop us, it just added to our eventful daily routine as we slowly bumped over logs, rubble, and downed logs in the work truck. I remember my first day out in the field vividly, following behind my supervisor we hiked up a trail and then suddenly peeled off, shooting up a steep slope and whacking through brush. This set the

Since the inception of Home Range a little over a year ago, we have been working towards a large-scope, interdisciplinary project aimed at providing important information for the conservation of Canada lynx. Now, we are thrilled to announce that with funding support from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation , our research on lynx and wildfire in the North Cascades begins this winter. These maps paint a clear picture as to why this research is urgently needed. The dark green areas show Washington’s lynx habitat, with the orange areas showing where fires burned between 1970 and 1999 (left map) and 2000 and 2021 (right map). In the past 20 years, North Cascades lynx habitat has flip-flopped from being mostly unburned to mostly burned. Climate change, in conjunction with a legacy of fire suppression, has created a tinder box on our landscape. Anyone that lives or spends time in the Methow Valley knows that wildfires have increased to the point that we regularly experience megafires (fires o

Participants in the inaugural Wildlife Field Techniques course were instructed to arrive prepared for anything, as the course would run rain-or-shine. The course, hosted at Skalitude Retreat in the foothills above Carlton, WA, would teach students the basic skills required to conduct wildlife field work over the course of four days. Students eagerly packed their rain jackets and traveled from across the mountain west to learn with Home Range, where daily lessons covered data collection principles, track and sign interpretation, remote wildlife cameras, telemetry, and field necropsy for wildlife mortality investigations. Little did they know how much they would be needing their rain jackets! The weekend began with an afternoon of introductions, discussion of the skills and attributes necessary to be an effective field biologist, and a lesson in field data collection techniques. The day’s lesson was followed by an evening around the bonfire with guest Kent Woodruff, a retired biologist w

We were excited to host the inaugural Wildlife Cub Club for twenty 4-6th graders at Methow Valley Elementary (MVE) this winter. Students learned about various wildlife species living in the Methow Valley, their habitats, and unique adaptations for survival. Alongside wildlife biology 101, t he students learned about various ways to monitor and research wildlife, including discussion of track, sign, camera trap, and live capture methodologies. Students put their wildlife tracking skills to the test and set up camera traps on campus to monitor wildlife on the MVE campus. Here are some highlights from the club! Looking at an image of a bobcat using a latrine.  One of the many cameras we set up on campus! Drawing tracks.  Students found squirrel sign (the pine cone midden in the background) and captured this gray squirrel! Students found deer scat and bed sites with deer hair in them beneath this large ponderosa - look who we found! Wildlife biologists in the making! 

Whether its hiking, biking, kayaking, skiing, or any number of other recreation activities, spending time moving outdoors can enhance human health and happiness. Participation in outdoor recreation activities has steadily increased over the past decades. Washington state, like much of the mountain west, has experienced marked increases in recreation, both in response to region-wide population growth and the COVID-19 pandemic (Fig. 1). This massive increase in human recreation is an emerging concern for wildlife managers as little is know about how recreational activities, particularly at the increased frequency, duration, and volume we are currently experiencing, effects wildlife.  Fig. 1.  Visits to USFS National Forests increased dramatically as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic (Outdoor Foundation 2021, National Visitor Use Monitoring Report, 2000). To address this issue and learn more about how wildlife are responding to recreation we are partnering with Conservation Northwest (CN

On October 7th, more than 100 people joined us at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery (OSB) Taproom in Twisp, WA to celebrate the launch of Home Range Wildlife Research. We were overwhelmed by the incredible support we received from our community as we shared our origin story and introduced our first projects.  OSB donated $1 of every beer purchased to Home Range, Sunflower Catering kept everyone fed with delicious appetizers, and the many local businesses (see below!) that donated to our silent auction all helped to make this event an incredible success.  Together, we raised more than $6000, funds that will help up launch our first training course this winter ( registration now open!!! ) and conduct pilot work for our lynx-wildfire study. Thank you so much to all those that came out to celebrate with us and donated to kickstart our projects! If you were unable to attend the event, we are still seeking donations to buy wildlife cameras, provide training course scholarships, and much more. Plea

Earlier this month, Home Range's Research Director, Carmen Vanbianchi, organized a field trip with a group of collaborators at the United States Forest Service (USFS),  Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), and Washington Conservation Science Institute (WCSI) to discuss fire impacts on the threatened Canada lynx.   More than 20 distinct fires have burned in the vicinity of the Methow Valley over the past 20 years, including the Cub Creek and Cedar Creek fires that burned on opposite sides of the valley much of this past summer. On our field trip we toured burns of various ages to the north of Winthrop and Mazama, an area extending all the way to the Canadian border that comprises much of the last remaining good lynx habitat in Washington state,  to learn how we can best manage for future fire impacts in this region. Washington (WA) once had the largest lynx population in the lower 48; the lynx population in WA is now well below 100 animals. The dark green area represe