Northwest Wildlife
Restoring Native Species for Healthier Ecosystems
The Northwest Regional Office of NPCA is committed to restoring the full complement of native wildlife species to our Northwest national parks. Our initial focus will be on wildlife in and around Olympic and North Cascades National Parks.
Olympic National Park has successfully maintained many of its native species, including its endemic species – those species that only exist in Olympic National Park. These endemic species include the Olympic marmot, Olympic Yellow-Pine chipmunk, Olympic snow mole, Olympic masama pocket gopher, and the Olympic ermine. Recent efforts have focused on returning once native species to the park. This includes the extremely successful reintroduction of the fisher. For more information on this remarkable program, click here.
Also, the park is on schedule (2011) to begin removal of two dams on the Elwha River, which will be the largest dam removal in the history of the U.S. Once these dams are taken down and the river restored to a free flowing system, salmon will once again be able to travel deep into the interior of the park bringing with them a wealth of nutrients vital to a healthy Olympic ecosystem. For more information on this project, click here.
In North Cascades National Park, the focus has been on augmenting a small population of grizzly bears. Currently, there are fewer than 10 grizzly bears that pass between Canada and the north unit of North Cascades National Park. NPCA is working with a coalition of conservation organizations and congress to secure funding for a Fish and Wildlife Service study of the potential benefits of adding to this grizzly bear population. To learn more about this program, click here.
One species that is native to both parks is slowly returning to the Northwest and, eventually, these two parks: the gray wolf. This mysterious and often misunderstood predator inspires both excitement and, unfortunately, fear. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is currently working on a Wolf Conservation and Management Plan that will govern the natural return of the gray wolf from other western states. NPCA advocates creating a viable and self-sustaining wolf population throughout the state, including healthy packs in Olympic and North Cascades National Parks. The gray wolf is the last native species absent in Olympic National Park and one that would help North Cascades National Park towards our goal of seeing all native species returned to northwest parks. For information on how you can become involved in the process of developing this plan, click here.
Finally, NPCA's Northwest Regional Office and Glacier Field Office are investigating the establishment of a west-to-east wildlife corridor connecting North Cascades National Park with Glacier National Park in northwest Montana. This would not be a traditional migration corridor, but instead a wildlife dispersal corridor connecting disconnected populations of species such as grizzly bears and gray wolves. To see a draft map of this area, the protected lands currently in place, and possible obstacles to dispersal, click here (PDF, 16 MB).
