By Judy Wagonfeld, Friend of the Fund

Dr. Patti Happe is the Wildlife Branch Chief of Olympic National Park. In her role, she monitors and studies wildlife throughout the park. I talked to her about two of the critters she works with, the Olympic Marmot and the Fisher.

The Olympic Marmot

In 2007 the 4th and 5th graders at Wedgwood Elementary School stumbled upon a government deficiency: Washington State lacked a designated mammal. This injustice mystified them. After all, we have a state bird, a sea mammal, flowers, a fruit, etc. As astute investigators, they decried the neglect, especially when discovering the Olympic marmot’s (Marmota Olympus) unique status as our only endemic (native) mammal. No one brought these perky creatures here. In the entire world they exist only in the Olympic Mountains. And, luckily, no one exterminated them.

Admit it. You didn’t know that – unless you are a kid from Wedgwood. Or perhaps your bedtime reading includes Washington Statutes, in this case, Title 1, Chapter 1.20, Section 1.20.038, Chapter 1.20 RCW which evolved from Senate Bill 5071 sponsored by Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle and signed by Governor Chris Gregoire in 2009.

Never mind all that verbiage. The important fact relates to the 50 students’ two-years of  research, e-mails, and visits to Olympia to teach our legislators a thing or two. Despite initial bipartisan opposition to another state symbol, the students, as pesky as mosquitoes, succeeded in honoring the Olympic Marmot our mammal symbol. Look online to check out these furry dudes.

Now, the Olympic National Park aims to ensure their survival. The park’s Wildlife Branch Chief, Dr. Patti Happe, monitors and studies these feisty residents through a grant from the Washington’s National Park Fund (WNPF). It’s her only marmot funding, except for one employee who works six months a year. Happe, who came to the Olympics from Alaska’s Wrangle St. Elias in 1996, knows how to make do. She draws from vast experience, a Bachelor’s in Environmental Resource Management, a Master’s in Wildlife Ecology, and a Ph.D. in Rangeland Ecology on elk and deer in old growth forests. Not to mention ten years on the Port Angeles School Board struggling with diminishing student numbers and funds.

“I designed a study to be done with only volunteers.” Happe says. “The Fund helped prepare a web site to recruit volunteers. People apply online  and I select who matches what I need.” Happe evaluates hiking & backpacking experience, off trail hiking skills, steep slope comfortability and time availability. This work is no walk in the park. Think long hikes in rugged terrain for one day or up to 8-days with backpacks. Also, volunteers attend classroom and field training at Hurricane Ridge garnering survey and GPS skills. Luckily, about a 100 volunteers help each year, many of whom repeat.

“We started the study in 2010 and discovered that despite an earlier decline, the marmots population remains stable,” Happe says. “Certain colonies are gone but others are doing well in the south west and north east areas of the park.” Happe discusses the study’s importance. “It can help us focus if we have to intervene…by moving colonies from fire destroyed terrain or across a river barrier.” Another concern involves climate warming. When snow melts earlier, trees sprout, reducing the lush flower meadows on which marmots depend.

After all, the marmot must double its weight during the three summer months out of its burrowed dwellings. Satisfying ravenous appetites, they gobble Spring blue lupine and glistening white Avalanche lilies. Near Hurricane Ridge, you’ll see them pop up on their rear legs and hear their distinctive, piercing whistle warning mates to “run for cover.”

The Fishers

No, not those reel and rod folk or animals that slurp up fish. The fisher (Pekania Pennanti) once fit like a puzzle piece in the ecologic maps of Washington and Oregon. All fine and good until the marketplace craved the luxurious pelts of these fetching house-cat sized creatures. Trapping, along with habitat loss and ill-conceived predator and pest control campaigns, doomed them — even though protected from harvest since1934. Extinction left a gaping ecosystem hole, eliminating the fishers’ predation of animals and insects and the forest’s dependence on seed and pollen dispersal.

Extensive surveys during the late 1990s and early 2000s located no fishers. As a member of the weasel family, fishers belong to the families of mink, otters and martens. The name arises from their resemblance to a “fitch” (European polecat) and its pelt termed fiche or fichet in French. Fortunately, fishers and skilled trappers still exist in Canada. Our state’s national parks brokered cross agency and cross border agreements which allowed WNPF to provide money to pay trappers who then harvest live animals. Of course, fishers don’t require a passport but they must be transported, boarded, receive veterinary exams, immunizations, and radio collars, and then get released into the wild – at a cost of about $2000 each.

Money from the Fund (WNPF) helped start the reintroduction project in 2008,” Happe says, adding, “Funding from 2008 through 2011 was critical for fisher study. It gave us the ability to hire people to find sites for monitoring equipment.” The first 80 fishers from Canada, funded in part by the WNPF, settled into the Olympic National Park where the collars tracked them during the batteries’ two years of life. Cameras, installed later, spotted 35 individual fishers. Twenty-five were new, implying they’ve reproduced. A fantastic result considering that in 1998 Washington State considered an endangered species listing.

“We decided to be proactive…and work toward reintroduction,” Happe says. “The process was so successful that the US Fish and Wildlife found our data showed no endangerment.” In fact, they adapt and thrive. “They eat anything they can wrap their teeth around – snowshoe hares, squirrels, grouse, and dead deer,” Happe says. She laughs at how quickly they learned to pounce on and savor mountain beavers.

Happe’s video cameras sit in the middle of 9-square mile research “hexes,” each about the size of a fisher’s range. No hexes overlap, generally preventing counting a fisher twice. But, there’s a problem: Fishers don’t get e-mails or maps directing them to the cameras. Rather, they must be seduced to scamper within the visual field. The answer: Food! Oh, but it’s labor intensive for humans. Every two weeks someone treks to sites, placing chicken meat lures into teeny wire basket attached to a tree.

To simplify the process Happe lusts after a new dispenser that drips an alluring scent once a day for a year. But darn, they cost $250 each. And she wants new cameras with auto sensors. She laughs, saying, “I think I should make a grant request for those.” We’re sure the students would agree. They’d find that at WNPF there’s no need for statutes, RCWs, or Senate Bills. We simply fund needs.