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Wildlife Program report: Apr. 16-30, 2024
This report summarizes recent, noteworthy activities of Wildlife Program field and headquarters staff, arranged by four divisions: Game, Lands, Science, and Wildlife Diversity, and six regions: Eastern, North Central, South Central, North Puget Sound, Southwest, and Coastal, including wildlife areas within those regions.
Managing Wildlife Populations
Skagit Wildlife Area Management Plan: The SEPA 30-day public review on the draft Skagit Wildlife Area Management Plan ended on April 22. The department received 14 sets of comments including letters from Skagit Audubon, Washington Trails Association, and Washington State Senate Republican Caucus. Lands Division and regional staff members are working on the comment responses at this time. Lands Division expects the final plan internal review by the end of May, with the final document being delivered to the Director in June for his signature.
Managing Wildlife Populations
Prairie Grouse: Biologist Lowe was in British Columbia trapping sharp-tailed grouse that were subsequently transported and released in either Lincoln or Douglas county as part of a translocation effort to augment existing local populations.
Biologist Brinkman assisted Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area Manager Finch setting up release boxes for sharp-tailed grouse on an existing lek in Lincoln County. Translocated birds get placed into the release boxes for 15 to 20 minutes to settle before being released into their new home.
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Prairie Grouse: Biologist Lowe was in 70 Mile House, British Columbia trapping the remaining four sharp-tailed grouse needed to complete the translocation effort for this year. The remaining four grouse were released in Lincoln County on the Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area at an existing lek. In total, 60 birds (30 males and 30 females) were captured, transported, and released over six days during this year’s translocation. On the final day of capture, Photojournalist Joel Sartore from National Geographic met the trapping crew to photograph the birds for his Photo Ark project.
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Conserving Natural Landscapes
Prescribed Burn Preparation: Fire Planner Lionberger and Sherman Creek Wildlife Area Assistant Manager Palmer performed fire control line preparation at Rustlers Gulch Wildlife Area. The pair dragged small pasture harrows pulled by an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) and a Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV) to prepare lines for any needed bulldozer use during burning. These lines are essentially fire boundaries.
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Columbia Plateau Wildlife Management Association (CPWMA) Work Party: Private Lands Biologist Nizer worked with CPWMA on a hunt by written permission property. They seeded between two and three acres of an unproductive field into alfalfa strips, clover, and barley. Nizer helped seed with the ATV and with clearing out debris and fencing on the property.
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Providing Education and Outreach
Dayton Kid’s Fishing Event: Wildlife Area Manager Dingman and Natural Resource Technician Tritt helped with two kids' fishing events in Dayton. Both events were held on the same day, the first event included the kids from The Boys & Girls Club in Dayton and the second event was sponsored by the city of Dayton. There were approximately 100 kids total who attended and fished the Kid’s Pond in Dayton.
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Conducting Business Operations and Policy
South Fork Hayshed Repairs: Wildlife area staff members improved the South Fork hayshed by installing metal siding over the gable ends. The metal covers exposed wood and closes holes that were allowing birds to enter the building. A rental snorkel lift made the job much easier and safer. New bat boxes were also installed on each end of the building.
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Managing Wildlife Populations
Beaver Rehabilitation – Successful Release and Establishment: A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist from King County (District 12), worked with PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center to identify potential locations for beaver release. In collaboration with Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, a site was chosen on Vashon-Maury. The land trust has reported that the beaver released there are hanging around the site and appear to be doing great. It is rare to be able to release beaver in suburban/rural areas of King County, which makes this site unique.
Snow Goose Survey: Wildlife Biologists Waddell and Soltysiak conducted the annual snow goose survey. This survey was conducted in a small single engine airplane and encompassed an area from southern British Columbia southward to northern King County. Flocks of snow geese were photographed for later analysis by AI software.
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Purple Martin Colony Maintenance: District 12 collaborated with volunteers to maintain the Seattle waterfront purple martin colonies at Duwamish Waterway and Shilshole Bay. Overall, roughly 100 nest gourds were cleaned and maintained for reuse this season (with the bulk of those also used last season). The purple martin is North America’s largest swallow that is a state Species of Greatest Conservation Need under the State Wildlife Action Plan. It is largely dependent on human nest boxes, nest gourds, and other human structures for nesting.
The purple martin is a cavity nesting species that needs snags that are over or adjacent to water to build their nests. Snags are dead or dying trees. Snags are a very specialized and limited habitat type that tends to be very patchy in occurrence. For purple martins, removing a group of snags with cavities that they use can take out an entire local martin colony. Snags are often taken down because they can be a safety hazard, and are also removed to preserve views. Simple management of snags, in the appropriate situation where hazards are not of concern, not only provides habitat, but also great wildlife attraction and watching opportunities.
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Sooty Grouse Survey: Westside district staff are in ongoing monitoring surveys for sooty grouse, a harvestable forest grouse species, this month and next.
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Common Loon Platform Maintenance and Launch: District 12 maintained platforms on two separate territorial common loon lakes. Loons were observed at both lakes. The common loon is a state listed species (Sensitive) and a Species of Greatest Conservation Need in the State Wildlife Action Plan.
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Improving Bat Roosting Habitat in Island and San Juan Counties: Biologist Licence, in collaboration with the Watchable Wildlife Program, Master Hunter Program, Diversity Division, State Parks, Girl Scouts, Bats Northwest, Happy Valley Bats Rehab Center, private citizens/landowners and other partners recently built over 50 multi-chambered bat boxes for distribution to stewards throughout the district.
This group rallied to install nine boxes at Deception Pass State Park. These boxes will provide additional living space for up to 2,250 bats in an area where bat exclusion has occurred over multiple winters in private dwellings nearby. Journalists from the Washington Post and a reporter from the Whidbey News-Times attended the event and conducted interviews.
Many of the additional boxes were donated to homeowners with bats regularly roosting in or near their property and are currently in the process of installing boxes. Fifteen more bat boxes were donated to the San Juan Island Land Bank for mounting and monitoring across San Juan and Orcas islands.
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Beach Clean-up Efforts on Whidbey Island: Biologist Licence and master hunters represented Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to support efforts by the Washington State University Island County Extension Office and Naval Air Station Whidbey to remove litter from beaches with a specific focus on collecting and quantifying plastic shotgun wad debris.
In the past month two separate events took place, one in early April at Windjammer Park in Oak Harbor and the other at Crescent Beach on Earth Day. Combined, volunteers collected hundreds of pounds of litter and well over 1000 shotgun wads.
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Island Marble Butterfly Spring Monitoring on San Juan Island: Biologist Licence and Pollinator Specialist Combs initiated another year of island marble butterfly (IMB) monitoring on San Juan Island. This week of monitoring included adult relative abundance transects, detection/no detection surveys in known IMB occurrence areas, as well as egg and larvae monitoring at the Cattle Point, Department of Natural Resources property. Staff members also value this time to communicate and build relationships with local conservation partners. The IMB season appears to be earlier this year than in the past and staff members counted 34 recently laid eggs where in recent history no eggs were counted during this early season survey.
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Bat Acoustic Activity Monitoring: Biologist Anderson maintained three solar powered acoustic bat recorders that are running year-round in the district. These are used for various trends in activity – emergence periods, species activity at a site, etc.
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Providing Conflict Prevention and Education
Bobcat and Wallabies – Conflict Prevention: Wildlife Conflict Specialist O’Connor responded to a call regarding a depredation to captive wallabies. Upon arriving at the site, O’Connor noted a bobcat in the wallaby pen, jumping out as he approached. O’Connor went through exclusionary needs and other conflict reduction management techniques.
Providing Education and Outreach
Protected Wildlife – Trail Building Concerns: Biologist Anderson met with Seattle Parks and Recreation, as well as a citizens group, regarding a local natural area that has a mountain bike trail proposed and in the process of development. A state protected active Cooper’s hawk nest was located right above the trail. They determined currently there is no conflict because the trail building will be well away from the active nest.
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Conducting Business Operations and Policy
Westside Necropsy Training: Wildlife health staff members provided a necropsy training and refresher for staff members for both west and east of the crest. In the west training, one of the specimens acquired was an elk from North Bend that had been spinning and appeared disoriented. Necropsy participants found an injury to the head/base of antler that created an injury, and infection and an abscess on the brain that likely created all the behavioral issues the animal exhibited.
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