Currently (March 1997), Department biologists have joined colleagues from other agencies in the second year of a five-year effort to restore the Selkirk Mountain woodland caribou to the mountains of northeastern Washington. The team has traveled to central British Columbia to captured adult caribou, which will be translocated to their new home in the Colville National Forest.
Caribou locations are monitored using radiotelemetry, which has helped biologists to understand movement patterns and survival. During spring 1996, biologists translocated 19 caribou, several of which remain in northeast Washington. Additional translocations are planned in 1998.
The Selkirk Mountain woodland caribou is the most endangered large mammal in the lower 48 states. It is classified as a State Endangered Species.