Sense of Place holds first-ever pop-up event: To feature Wildlife Biologist Jocelyn Akins

“These Pop-Up events are a natural way for us to offer greater access to incredible individuals like Jocelyn Akins and her unique knowledge of this place,” said Sarah Fox, host/curator of Sense of Place. “Having the opportunity to do that with an organization and space like the Gorge Discovery Center & Museum feels like a win for everyone.”

Sense of Place is a program of Mt. Adams Institute, a Gorge-based nonprofit that “seeks to strengthen the connection between people and the natural world through education, service, career development, and research,” said a press release.

About the program

In the Washington Cascades, two rare carnivores roam the high alpine. Wolverines were once eliminated entirely from Washington, but in 2020, a wolverine and her kits were photographed in Mt. Rainier National Park for the first time in more than a century. Three years later, the Cascades Carnivore Project announced it had documented three new baby wolverines.

Another carnivore, the Cascade red fox (Vulpes vulpes cascadensis) has called the high Cascades home for half a million years. In fact, these foxes are found no place else in the world. Yet despite their native status, this elusive species has gone largely unnoticed until now. In 2022, the Cascade red fox was listed as endangered by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.

Fox and Akins will discuss what it takes to research these rare carnivores, Akins’ personal journey, and what the research may tell us about the rare carnivores’ chances of survival in the American West.

 Akins is a wildlife biologist with more than two decades of experience in wildlife conservation research. Her research and the Cascades Carnivore Project, which she founded in 2008, have been featured in National Geographic, the Smithsonian Magazine, on OPB and in USA Today. She studies rare, alpine carnivores, working in collaboration with numerous partners to promote the conservation of carnivores and their ecological communities in the Cascade Range. She earned a Ph.D. in Conservation Genetics from the University of California Davis. She was a 2021 Wilburforce Leaders in Conservation Science Fellow.