My name is Jim Santa. I grew up spending a lot of time exploring the woods, lakes, streams, and rivers of Northern Minnesota. I have always had a passion for the outdoors and wildlife. During college I spent many days fishing the rivers and chasing Steelhead on the north shore of Lake Superior and traveling by canoe through the Boundary Waters and Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario. I worked At the Ski Hut in Duluth and upon graduation found my way to the Wood River Valley and went to work for Sturtevant’s. Some 25+ years later, I’m still here. Now I volunteer for the Wood River Wolf Project.
I absolutely love the Wood River Valley and have spent time as a Fly Fishing and Mountain Bike Guide. I first learned of the Wolf Project a couple years ago when Logan Miller, Field Manager, contacted Sturtevant’s looking to purchase an E mountain bike, or eMTB, for their field work. As I learned more, my interest was piqued, and I inquired about any possible volunteer opportunities. Salmon and Wolves are on top of my list of wildlife issues and I wanted to lend a hand.
My first trip with Logan involved wildlife game cameras and eMTB’s, riding to an undisclosed location, up a couple of thousand vertical feet through patches of remaining snow to find a good camera location.
Of course, picking where to set a camera is a big part of the equation. Looking for signs of animals, games trails, water nearby, all of this and more need to be considered. We went through the camera set up and settings making sure everything was in working order. As a final test we crawled around in view of the camera to make sure we had it right. We locked the camera to the tree, remounted our bikes, and descended back to the trailhead. Before parting Logan loaded me up with a couple more cameras, a Boneview card reader for use in the field, extra batteries and SD cards, some suggested locations, and I was off in search of new adventures!
Jim with wildlife camera.
The next weekend I loaded up my pack, and with some GPS waypoints and a rental eMTB, went out to set my first cameras. Many of these suggested camera locations are “out there”. I rediscovered terrain I hadn’t seen in years, mostly because it’s time consuming to get to, and steep and technical. In other words, perfect for an eMTB. A big thank you to those who clear these trails, especially the motorcycle crew. One can really get “out there” into terrain that at least I would rarely ride on my “acoustic” bike. These bikes make an ideal tool for getting to and from these game cameras, while having an absolute blast doing it. So much so that after a couple times on the demo bike, I decided that I needed my own.
Now, when the day arrives to go play in the woods and check the cameras, I’m like a kid on Christmas morning. Arriving at a camera I pull out my phone and the Boneview SD reader for a preview. I’ll check a few videos to make sure everything is working. These previews are typically a good measure of what we’ll find when we review it all. These deeper dives into the footage provided a lot of evening entertainment throughout the season. I’ll yell out “Moose”, “Bear”, “Badger” to Marcia, my wife, who’d be in the other room, and she’ll come running to look. She’s now as excited as I am when I return from a mission with fresh SD cards to review. Let me tell you, it’s a virtual Wild Kingdom out there! It’s simply amazing the amount of wildlife we have all around us, and many of these animals are rarely seen.
Now to the big question, did I see any wolves on my cameras? It took a while, with my newly acquired experience navigating with the CalTopo trail app, to find the camera Logan had set and provided the coordinates to. I found it on my second attempt and this one had my first wolf viewing of the season. I was elated. They do exist! Still, I hadn’t accomplished my goal of finding wolves on a camera I had set myself. But not long after, I had a single wolf on one of my sets. Again, elated. Then a few weeks later came the joy of capturing a pack of 4 moving by one of my sets. This was so cool, and exactly what I had set out to do in the early spring.
As I write this, the season is winding down, marked by the Trailing of the Sheep festival. A good place to mention that the sheep are the primary reason for the existence of the project in the first place, to find ways to reduce conflict between the wildlife and livestock in the Valley. This is the last of many summer events in the Wood River Valley and marks the transition from summer to winter. We’ve started to pull some cameras from up high, but leaving the closer, lower ones in place for as long as we can.
I’ve had so much fun and adventure this summer that I hate to see it end. I learned a lot about the wildlife present in the Wood River Valley, how to navigate in the backcountry with Cal Topo, became familiar with the function of the Browning game cameras and more familiar with how all the drainages connect in the backcountry, and I found a new love, riding an eMTB. I am truly grateful and proud for the opportunity to serve the Wood River Wolf Project and to learn more about, and further the understanding and acceptance of wolves as a critical component of our ecosystem. I’m already looking forward to next season as I’ll begin with the new knowledge and experience that I gained this summer.