NE Wa. N. Idaho and NW Mt. probably has some of the wildest non park or wilderness area in lower 48. My uncle operated skidder, loader and logging trucks in N. Idaho. The fed and state decided best people to report on Woodland Caribou would be loggers. They know the woods and are in the wildest spots. There was one basic flaw to their thinking. The loggers did see the caribou. and found sheds. Uncle told me the Caribou would dine on the lichen moss and other stuff exposed by logging. They got used to loggers presence fast. They reported them as asked. The feds and state would shut down logging operations once the the Caribou were reported. Now the loggers started not "seeing" caribou nor found any sheds. Government decided loggers had pretty much chased them back to Canada. My uncle- everyone had got better at burying sheds and seeing nothing.
Now we have the wolves, which if you read are great for the environment. In the deep snow wolves stay on top and caribou bog down, definitely not good for caribou recovery. Now in Canada, in the Caribou recovery area, wolves are fair game, in fact pursued. Canada was sending Caribou to us to strengthen our Selkirk herd. But since we will not keep wolves away from them no more caribou for us....