The Land Trust is excited to announce a rescheduled (and reformatted) presentation by Kim Sager-Fradkin, Wildlife Program Manager for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. Sager-Fradkin, who is also a Land Trust Board Member, will discuss her cutting-edge field research on cougars of the North Olympic Peninsula.
This presentation was originally part of this year’s Conservation Breakfast. It will now take place online as a Zoom webinar. Register in advance for the webinar or click here to join in at 10am.
Get informed (and excited!) about this topic by listening to two recent podcasts from KUOW’s “The Wild with Chris Morgan.”
Sager-Fradkin holds a B.S. in wildlife biology from Humboldt State University and an M.S. in wildlife resources from the University of Idaho. Her work has two primary tracks: the first to explore wildlife response to removal of the Elwha dams, and the second to contribute to tribal subsistence harvest activities by monitoring populations of elk and deer and the predators that rely upon them. Sager-Fradkin’s most current research focuses on cougar genetics, dispersal patterns, and diet. In 2018, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe initiated a cougar research project, leading to a partnership with Panthera, the only organization in the world devoted exclusively to the conservation of wild cats. Together, the tribe and Panthera created the Olympic Cougar Project, a large-scale collaborative effort to assess cougar connectivity in western Washington State. This fascinating project is currently expanding to establish additional partnerships and study a larger area of the Olympic Peninsula.