k - ■ "X < "'■- . . s ^'■^ ' ' ', ' ' V" - --- '■*'' ■> . -s VC A"v ' - A «* '- ><■>'<.', ,g '' \'-\<-~''S-;'j-/-f','-v%,\| V-',- ""^x' V'"' > 'V; >; -" > ', o " ^'-''' V -.,,A'^'''-V>f 4" \K' '' ~ ,- '•• s ^ <; '. ,. . ■>“ ' ->" ■' -Air %jSil|3| . jgw|SH ■ >~<-.'>â^ssgaaaB«aiHi WiK$ 'i&0§SMm Sftsm/im I* ’t^tS«: WMM0: ■f3*8«î. -Ife ■:^^ff-J:. ■y--V:Ay'^V;V.VX7^?7-' I ...... ^li^^î^;::lj:;;;f-i:;:^:;^;:: ' '1HB00r''^ wh'K/.' . jBSo/i:;niiJrjV!'f:?i/fjiJ.''ej^ ’ 1*1 m .WB^^B ■* WBmBi . . WIVM IH-' "*** % % ■* f_ ’iiiUih .jSr'*' ^^!^'^''''^ ~ *3 %■■ ...M0. ^4* : '!>■.:■■: #r > "% ^,. ... :. y.- . r- ^Highway 542 winds through the rural spine of the Sumas Mountains. There are two clouds in the sky, one somewhere ; over the Canadian Pacific and another against Mount Baker, shielding the white crown from my view. I am journeying east into the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Fprest tracing a state highway map. I want to see firsthaîwhat I have heard about recently - an^nal sightings. ^ " */ ‘ , ' .Sightings are not uncomrrldn {orXhe'North Cascades wilderness, but these particular animals have been absent from ^ United States territory for years. These are transplants from Canada, where their habitat is managed quite different than if they , lived in thb U.S. There are sightings of the gray wolf as far south as Everett. Grizzly bears, thought to be extinct in the Colorado Rockies and northward, have been sighted in these mountains - but so has Bigfoot. I don't know which I would rather run into. High-tech imaging satellites are mapping the current habitats, or home ranges, of these populations and more than 200 others/Breakthrough computer database programs, such as Arc/Info's Geographic Informatio^ Systems (GIS) or PCI remote sens#ing software, allow geographers and wildlife biologists alike to uncover subtle patterns in|species' behavior - patterns never proven to be so interconnected and prease until now. From this information, w^ can rethink^ previous theories of animal behav; ‘ior, characteristic needs, and the effects of habitat destruction. ^ * But what happens when the new technology unveils patterns that traverse public forest onto private land? Or cross inter national borders? Scientists and environpiental activists are calling for re-zoning animal habitat ranges into ecological-based regions,; known as eco-region^, primarily on satellite imagery data. The U.S. government drew the boundaries that appear on m*^ higKvây map at a time when the prevailing interests were tenors of evolving capitalism. The needs of the species hemmed inside those lines were pnly trivial by cpmparisen. / \