Standing in a lush grassy alpine meadow, an Olympic marmot appears to wave with an uplifted front left paw
NPS photo
Program Overview and Results of the 2021 Field Season
2021 was the 11th year of the program, and our fifth year back after taking a year off in 2016 to analyze the data and evaluate the program. The design of the program has essentially remained the same for the past 5 years: the survey frame consists of 395 survey units in 74 clusters. There are 30 clusters in the "core area" that we try to survey every year for a more simplified look at changes over time (e.g., apples to apples); we have been able to survey these clusters pretty consistently since 2010. There are 33 clusters, including the new ones in the Hayes Fire area, that we designate for occasional surveys as resources permit. The remaining clusters are no longer being assigned to volunteers due mainly to difficulty of access (e.g., the Bailey Range and Skyline).
In 2021 we were able to survey for marmots at 277 units in 58 clusters: all of the 30 core clusters were surveyed; 27 in the occasional group; and one of the Skyline clusters was surveyed by an NPS monitoring crew while on other duties. Within the core, 91% of the units were completely surveyed and only 9% had either an incomplete survey or no survey. In these core areas, the raw occupancy was 68% for complete surveys. Range-wide the raw occupancy was 59% for completed surveys. We are planning on having another marmot monitoring field season in 2022, but will take a break for analysis in 2023.
Annual trends in naive Olympic Marmot Occupancy in core survey units, Olympic National Park, 2010-2021. The core consists of the same 151 units each year, but not all are completely surveyed every year due to access constraints or other factors.
