On July 12, the day we left Washington after visiting Zoe, she sends this picture with a note describing what is going on near her study area in the Methow Valley of the Cascade Mountains. "It's fire season! There are 4 or 5 small blazes in this frame. Doesn't help that the high today is 104." She said although the air was hazy, it was not affecting the wolves and livestock in her study. But 2 days later another thunder storm touched off even more blazes and now her study area is burned out. Several homes have been destroyed, towns evacuated, no power, no gas, etc. You can read more about these fires at www.cascadeloop.com/index.php?Page_id=217. She and her tech have evacuated their living quarters and are working with another team in another part of the state until it is safe to return. She had been tracking wolves in a den in the area and says the cubs were hopefully old enough to be safely moved by the pack. Time will tell. She was getting calls from the local ranchers whose cows she had also been tracking as they wanted to find out where their cows were. It appears the cows escaped to safety; at least the ones that were tagged. With no water or electricity in the area due to lines and power stations burned down; until her area becomes habitable, she has joined another group of researchers in a different part of the state. Zoe hopes to go back Monday and check things out.
This is one of so many stories in her life as a wildlife biologist. We have tried to tell her to write this down and publish a book someday but she says its not really that interesting as that is the life of all wildlife biologists........
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