Two Sisters Return

Two Sisters Return Lia Andrews, Melissa Buckley, Megan McDermott, Kaliane Van, Pakawat Maneechaemsai Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Thomas Murphy

Introduction: The Edmonds Community College Learn and Serve Environmental Anthropology Field (LEAF) School students conducted research at Two Sisters Return, prospective site of the Snoqualmie Tribe’s Cultural Center. Monitoring of the wildlife habitat, animal tracking, and vegetation allows us to determine the condition of the site, and data for the Snoqualmie Tribe to use in a stewardship plan for the Two Sisters Cultural and Heritage Center. Our data supports previous LEAF School research indicating an abundance of wildlife presence this year at the TSR site.

GRAPH Black Bear Banana Slug

Methods & Procedures: 2 Reconyx motion triggered cameras were set up on the Two Sisters site. These motion sensitvie cameras take 5 photos at 1 second intervals. The photos help us determine species presence. Additional data comes from physical site visits photographing animal track and sign, recording weather conditions, plant identification, wildlife viewing and evidence such as scat, antler rubs, or claw marks. Elk Scent Marking

Black-tailed Deer Family

Future Work: How will the heritage and cultural center affect the game trails for the animals? We should explore to see if the old parking lot parallel to the site that used to be there is affecting the animals. • We recommend that the tribe identify a safe open patch of land that could help a healthy game trail still stay active. For future reference, more cameras can be installed for more accurate data collection.

Analysis/Discussion & Conclusions: The cameras allow us to see a significant amount of black bear, black tail deer, bobcat and coyote. The most regularly seen animal is elk. We also have recognized signs such as browsing, foraging, and breeding that allow us to determine there is activity in the area. We found browsed vegetation, scat, antler rub, and woodpecker feeding holes. Our data supports previous studies showing that Two Sisters is important wildlife habitat.

Acknowledgements: City of Snoqualmie, Snoqualmie Tribe of Indians, Forterra, Laurie Ross