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Students learning and assisting in Project Cat. Photo: Gary M. Koehler

Nestled along the eastern foothills of the Cascades the rural community of Cle Elum has been swept up in a change. This once sleepy rural town is caught in the midst of Seattle’s urban expansion and is fast becoming a resort destination, and residential community for Puget Sound’s economic bloom. It is also becoming a model for community and public school participation, investigating how wildlife and the community will respond to these changes and the steps essential to secure wildlife and the rural character of their backyards.

Students, kindergarteners to seniors, at Cle Elum-Roslyn School District, are helping to investigating wildlife and habitats to document how development will affect the wildlife and the community; a community that has been dependent on the natural resources of this rural environment. Community members, too, volunteer to assist with and supervise student research projects. Young adults to senior citizens share their skills, experiences and enthusiasm; working hand-in-hand with students under the oversight of professional researchers to document current habitat conditions where elk, deer, and cougars roam and how these may respond to changes brought by the seasons and development.

Second graders to 8th graders count deer, elk, and domestic stock, along school bus routes on their way to school. These bus routes serve as permanent- transects from which counts of deer and elk, natural prey for cougars, are monitored during annual seasonal and long-term developmental changes. These students also conduct track counts in the snow of animals that reside near their homes. These counts provide scientists with knowledge on where elk and deer are distributed among residential areas and how this may influence cougar use of habitats and space. Students, too, may spend part of their summers helping scientist develop a map of the forest habitats of the Kittitas Valley. This data is used with satellite imagery to construct a GIS (Geographic Information System) map that will show how deer, elk, cougars and people use habitats.

The secretive life of the cougar is unlocked from cougars captured and marked with GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) collars. During the winter, 9th to 12th grade students from the spend class time assisting biologist searching the surrounding forests for tracks of these elusive predators. High school students use training in track identification that is introduced in the elementary classroom and practiced in the school’s backyard forest as they accompany Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist in search of cougars. Once a fresh cougar track is located, trained hounds are unleashed and a chase is on to catch the cougar. Biologist dart the cougar while students observe from a secure distance. Students help collect and record physical measurements and condition of the cat. The animal is fitted with a radio collar that, besides emitting radio signals, records precise GPS location positions every 6 hours, day and night, each day of the year.

This high-tech view into the cougars travels is merged with the GIS habitats maps to help scientists, students, and community members understand how and where cougars live in relation to deer and elk, and where people live and recreate. This knowledge is the basic ingredient into understanding how wildlife and habitat may respond to the changes occurring as development proceeds. This will help members of the community and the future decision makers of the community, design and promote programs to ensure a safe place for the residence as well as secure a place for wildlife in the future of this changing community.