Wildlife biologists are studying hoary marmots in the high meadows of the North Cascades to determine why their populations are in decline. Researchers with the Cascades Carnivore Project suspect climate change and the shifting range of predators are the culprits.
Writer Paul Lask spent a week with an all-female crew taking tree core samples in the forests of northeast Oregon, a place of rich natural beauty. The rigorous work helps researchers determine the ways in which human activity is altering the ecology of the Blue Mountains.
