This is a continuation of 2016 and 2017 CREOi-funded projects. Canada lynx, one of three wild cat species native to Washington State, depend on large pristine tracts of boreal forest habitat with ample snowshoe hare and persistent deep snow. In Washington, lynx populations steeply declined due to trapping and habitat degradation and they were afforded federal protection under the Endangered Species Act in 2000. Numerous studies suggest that the persistence of lynx in Washington will depend on maintaining the connected network of populations across Washington, and north into British Columbia. While a number of surveys have documented lynx presence and density across suitable habitat in the Cascade Mountains, there is relatively little information about the population status of the species outside of the Cascades.
This award supported the culmination of a three-year survey effort of the Kettle River Mountain Range, or ‘Kettles’, for Canada lynx. Numerous studies have pointed to evidence that the persistence of lynx in Washington will depend on maintaining the connected network of populations across Washington, and north into British Columbia. The Kettles occupy northeast Washington State and form an important east-west bridge for meta-populations of lynx and other wide-ranging species that inhabit both the Cascades and Rocky Mountains. With the increase in devastating wildfires in the Okanogan and Cascades regions, maintaining a source population of lynx in the Kettles could be essential to long-term persistence of the species in Washington State. Despite this and the fact that several modeling exercises have pointed to the importance of the Kettles for lynx conservation, the area has been left out of recent critical habitat designations.
While individual occurrences have been recorded over the past decade, there had been no recent, systematic surveys of the Kettles. In this final season, twenty mid- to large-sized mammal species were detected and a large amount of information was collected on species such as bobcat, cougar, wolf, bear, moose, deer, elk, and coyote; there were also a few detections of other species of interest such as badger and marten. While lynx detections were rare across the three years of the study, it was critical to confirm their current presence. The results were well-received by a state-led lynx working group that has been considering the Kettles specifically for a lynx reintroduction project for several years. A complementary analysis modeled the lynx population potential for the Kettles as well as levels of dispersal that would be necessary to maintain a population in the long-term. Based on all of this progress, the Confederated Tribes of The Colville Reservation have made the decision to undertake a lynx reintroduction project in the Kettles in 2021 – an extremely exciting development. In addition, the research was published as part of an analysis of camera survey data across a broader geographic range (King et al., 2020). ($20,000)