Standing Their Ground

Since Alice Morris began researching northern Idaho ground squirrels in Bear, Idaho, six years ago, she hasn’t looked back.

Instead, Morris, a graduate student in the College of Natural Resources, has looked deep into the ground, and she’s looked far afield, high and low in her effort to trap, collar and track the small rodent that is considered a threatened species.

Morris is among a group of researchers from the North Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit taking part in a long-term study to learn why northern Idaho ground squirrels, which are smaller than their cousin the seemingly ubiquitous Columbia ground squirrel, have been losing ground in the only place they live: a small chunk of two counties in central Idaho. The squirrels have lost 99% of their historic range in the last half century.

Researchers are evaluating the effects of thinning and burning forests in the yellow pine glades in the southernmost edge of the Seven Devils Mountains to see if the squirrels occupy areas that are thinned or burned. They are assessing squirrel behavior and population changes as result of those things, Morris said.

“The leading hypothesis for the decline, we think trees and shrubs have encroached, as a result of human fire suppression, into open meadows that the squirrels use for den sites,” Morris said. “The lack of fire has allowed encroachment and degradation of habitat – so we hope to see if thinning and burning will create or restore habitat and whether we’ll see population increases.”

Relegated to small patches of Adams and Valley counties west of McCall in the Payette Forest, the squirrels hibernate nine months and emerge from their den for three months annually in the summer.

“If we find the squirrels need forested areas to hibernate then potentially, we need to rethink management that may include thinning and burning, to protect habitat,” Morris said.

Morris earned an undergraduate degree in biology in Boston, worked in South America before heading west to Utah and Montana as a wildlife technician. She joined the University of Idaho squirrel project and leads a team as part of her research. As one of several teams on the project, Morris' group is comprised of six members who research 10 study sites.

Team members can work 12 hours a day in summer as they capture, tag and release ground squirrels, gather data on morphology, collect DNA and use radio telemetry to track squirrels to their winter hibernation nest. Through cameras and collars, squirrel behavior is also studied underground.

“I love working with these squirrels more than with any other species study system,” Morris said.

She hopes to finish her research in Spring 2024.

“It’s kind of bittersweet,” she said. “The years have flown by.”

The northern Idaho ground squirrel project has for more than a decade been funded by U.S. Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

This project was funded to the Regents of the University of Idaho by the US Geological Survey under award G22AC00227. The total project funding is $18,867.92 of which 100.00% is the federal share. This project was also funded to the Regents of the University of Idaho by the US Geological Survey under award G23AC00122. The total project funding is $268,149.57 of which 100.00% is the federal share. In addition, this project was funded to the Regents of the University of Idaho by the US Geological Survey under award G22AC00213. The total project funding is $185,190.04 of which 100.00% is the federal share.

Article by Ralph Bartholdt, University Communications.

Photos by Alice Morris.

Video by Alice Morris, edited by University Visual Productions.

Published in Nov. 2023.