Friends of Scotchman Peaks repeats as finalist for zoo grant

Each fall, Zoo Boise Conservation Fund narrows a big field of animal research grant applicants down to nine, and then lets the public vote on which of them to fund. 

Last year, the Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness (FSPW) wolverine study proposal got more votes than any other proposal. 

In response, the Fund awarded FSPW $27,000 to assist Idaho Department of Fish and Game in a rare carnivore study that stretched from the Selkirk Mountains across the Panhandle and into the Scotchman Peaks and Montana. 

Now, FSPW has been nominated again, and are calling on all of their Friends and friends of Friends to visit the Zoo Boise web site and vote for this year’s proposal.

“We have a big opportunity to keep the field work on this study rolling along,” said FSPW Executive Director Phil Hough. 

“Fish and Game will not be able to put as much effort into the field as they did last year, so it’s doubly important that FSPW continues the data stream we started working on with them two years ago.”

The first year of the study, 2010-11, was marked by a modest study involving just a few camera stations that caught an amazing variety of critters, but particularly rare forest carnivores; martins, fishers, ermine, bobcats, and even a wolverine and a lynx. 

“We started small,” said Sandy Compton, FSPW program coordinator, “but the volunteer response was amazing. Lots of people were interested in getting involved with setting up and monitoring the camera stations.”

With that encouragement, Hough wrote the grant proposal for the 2011-12 season, and it was the top vote-getter of the nine finalists. 

With the grant in hand, FSPW bought two dozen-plus top-grade Reconix cameras and all the other accoutrements to set up monitoring stations, and hired Kelsey Brasseur for 30 hours a week to be project coordinator. 

Brasseur, with a bachelor’s in biology and fresh off of a summer of marine research in Glacier Bay, Alaska, started in November and very ably ran the project through the first of April.

“Kelsey was a great fit for the job,” Compton said, “but, boy, did she have her hands full.”

To vote, go to www.zooboise.org/zbcfprojects.aspx