Washington’s 558 western heather vole records map a mountain animal. The deepest concentration sits in the northeast, Pend Oreille and Stevens counties, with Colville National Forest contributing 191 on its own, and the rest scattered through high country from Mount Rainier National Park and the Glacier Peak and Daniel J. Evans wildernesses north to the Pasayten and Salmo-Priest along the Canadian line.
A vole of conifer forest and brushy high ground
The heather vole is a forest vole rather than a meadow one, living in conifer and mixed woods, subalpine heath, willow thickets, and brushy rockslides. It feeds on bark, buds, leaves, and berries, and unlike most voles it climbs readily and caches food up in shrubs and trees. Washington lies near the southern end of its western range, which is why the state’s records cling to the Cascade crest and the northeastern corner rather than the lowlands.
Busy under the snow
Counts crest in June and hold strong through September, then nearly vanish from November to March. The voles have not gone anywhere. Like other voles they stay active all winter, traveling and feeding in the insulated space between the ground and the snowpack, so the cold-season quiet is a matter of concealment rather than dormancy.
Status in Washington
NatureServe ranks the western heather vole S5, Secure, in Washington, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
