For two months in 2021, Tim Andrews roamed the high meadows of Mount Rainier National Park in search of signs of the rare Cascade red fox, one of the region’s most imperiled mammals. As winter approached, he turned his attention to wolverines, another elusive and charismatic species of the montane West, climbing trees and building wolverine monitoring stations that would enable us to track their movements in the months that followed.
If his stint with Cascades Carnivore Project sounds like a dream job, that’s because it was, Tim said. “I loved it.” But it wasn’t simply a diversion. Tim is from Tipp City, Ohio, and he had just completed a computer- and stats-intensive biology degree. His three months in the field with CCP gave him useful hands-on experience as well as a chance to support CCP – work he considers critical for conserving rare carnivores.
“When you’re looking at a computer screen and numbers all day, it’s hard to feel connected with the species you’re trying to protect,” he said.
“I was drawn to CCP by the Cascade red fox,” he added. “They’re so charismatic and rare. The need to research them and better understand them is so important. And the Pacific Northwest is a beautiful part of the country. I love the Cascades.”
Tim, now a graduate student, worked closely with another field researcher, Heather Rolph, during his season at CCP. He started in August, day-hiking and sometimes camping in the backcountry, following trails and ridgelines in search of fox scat. Because foxes travel at times along human-made trails – and because CCP founder, Dr. Jocelyn Akins and other researchers have already collected information about their range and habits – Tim and Heather successfully found evidence of foxes in the wide expanse of Mount Rainier National Park.
On a good day, they’d find more than a dozen scat samples, prepare them for DNA analysis and record field observations. They never spotted a Cascade red fox, a rare mountain subspecies of red fox and a recently listed endangered species in Washington, but Tim didn’t mind.
“The work is so hands-on. I felt personally connected with the species, even if I didn’t see one.”
In October, Tim and Heather began building monitoring stations for wolverines, using GPS to traverse off-trail to find the remote patches of subalpine forests to set new stations. He and Heather built the platforms (called runpoles) high enough to ensure they would remain above snowline even in the winter months. The wolverines climb the tree and walk onto the runpole for the bait, Tim explained, where motion-activated cameras take their photos from a second tree. The wolverines also often rub up against wire brushes, set on the runpole, which grab a bit of fur for DNA analysis.
It was often cold and wet – the work is done late in the season before winter snows set in – and Tim found it challenging to build the stations with chilled fingers. But it was also deeply satisfying, he said. All told, he and Heather set and checked 18 stations.
Now in graduate school at Western Colorado University pursuing a degree in ecology and environmental management, Tim’s work with CCP stays with him. “I got some of the most strenuous experience I’ve ever had, which helped me realize I’m capable of doing this kind of work,” he said. Though he’s now studying ungulates, carnivores, he added, “have a special place in my heart.”