The ice sheets of Vashon-Wisconsin time descended southward to southern Puget Sound and to the northern edge of the Columbian Plateau. If the area of the ice sheet be superimposed on a map of distributional areas of Washington, it is seen that the area occupied by the Rocky Mountain Fauna in northeastern Washington is eliminated. Thus, at the maximum descent of Wisconsin ice, the Rocky Mountain type of mammalian fauna was found only in extreme southeastern Washington. No point of contact between the forest fauna of the Rocky Mountains and the fauna of the Pacific coast exists, anywhere, because desert areas, or at least barren plains, lie between them from the border of the glaciers south to Mexico. For the entire period, perhaps thousands of years long, while the glaciers were in place, the two forest faunas were separated. Repeated separation of the faunas by successive glaciations is thought to be responsible for many of the differences now existing between them.
Following the retreat of the ice, the Pacific Coastal Fauna extended its range northward to the Fraser River and, in part, into the Cascade Mountains. The Rocky Mountain Fauna invaded northeastern Washington and boreal Canada, including the Pacific Coast north of the Fraser River. Certain parts of the Rocky Mountain Fauna also invaded the Cascade Mountains.
Inasmuch as the Cascades were invaded by species from both faunas, a detailed analysis of the mammals existing there now seems justified. Several significant features of the composition of the mammal fauna of the Cascades are apparent. First, several species typical of the Pacific Coastal Fauna are present, such as Neurotrichus gibbsii, Sorex trowbridgii, Sorex bendirii, Tamias townsendii, Microtus oregoni and Aplodontia rufa. Each of these species has no close relatives in the Rocky Mountain Fauna and, save perhaps Sorex trowbridgii, occupies a unique ecological niche and has no counterpart in the Rocky Mountain Fauna.
A second group includes species with close relatives in both the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coastal faunas. This group is remarkable in that it is composed of either very closely related species or very strongly differentiated subspecies in each fauna. For example, the golden-mantled ground squirrel (Citellus saturatus) of the Cascade Mountains is specifically distinct from Citellus lateralis. Supposedly the Cascade form was isolated in the southern Cascades during Vashon-Wisconsin time. The Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii) of the Cascades, which has a red belly, is the same as the squirrel of the lowlands of western Washington but is specifically distinct from the red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) of the Rocky Mountain Fauna, which has a white belly. In the extreme northeastern Cascades the two species come together. They do not interbreed but seem to compete, for they do not occur together. The flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus fuliginosus) of the Cascades is only slightly differentiated from other races of the Rocky Mountain Fauna but is much different, as are all Rocky Mountain races, from the western Washington subspecies (Glaucomys s. oregonensis). The red-backed mouse of the Cascades is Clethrionomys gapperi, a species distinct from Clethrionomys californicus of western Washington. The jumping mouse of the Cascades is Zapus princeps trinotatus, the same race that occurs in western Washington. It is quite distinct from, and has previously been considered a species separate from, the races of the Rocky Mountain Fauna. The snowshoe rabbit of the Cascades is closely related to other races of the Rocky Mountain Fauna but is distinct from L. a. washingtonii of western Washington. The pika (Ochotona princeps) of the Cascades was apparently isolated in the southern part of the range during the glaciation. After the retreat of the glaciers it extended its range northward. Competition between two subspecies has resulted in parallel distributions due to relative body size. The two races freely intergrade and the differences between them are not so great as in the other forms mentioned.
The third group of mammalian species of the Cascades is composed of species typical of the Rocky Mountain Fauna such as: Marmota caligata, Synaptomys borealis, and Orcamnos americanus. Each has no ecological counterpart in the Pacific Coastal Fauna. Each is absent from the Cascades of Oregon.
We interpret the mixture of faunas in the Cascades as follows: The Vashon-Wisconsin ice sheet was in place for a long period of time, longer, probably, than the Recent. During this time, forest mammals of the Pacific Coast were isolated from forest mammals farther east by glaciers to the north and desert to the east. Changes took place in both of the separated forest faunas. Certain species, perhaps, such as the mammoth, became extinct. Other forms were exterminated then or at an earlier time in one fauna or the other. If Aplodontia, Neurotrichus or Scapanus occurred in the Rocky Mountain faunal area, it lived in an inland area of rigorous climate, and disappeared there because it was unable to adapt itself to the cold. In the mild climate caused by proximity of the ocean, mild even in Vashon-Wisconsin time to judge from evidence yielded by study of fossil pollens, primitive forms such as moles, the Bendire shrew, and mountain beaver persisted along the coast, where there were no boreal conditions. Some alpine forms, such as Marmota olympus, Ochotona princeps brunnescens and Citellus saturatus persisted in the Olympic or Cascade mountains as relic species. On the whole, however, the glacial divergence resulted in a boreal forest fauna and a temperate forest fauna.
In addition to change in component species, there were evolutionary changes in the species themselves. In some these were considerable, as shown by the differences between related forms of the two faunas. In most species, however, evolutionary changes have resulted in only subspecific differences.
Following the retreat of the glaciers and the establishment of vegetation on the deglaciated areas, movements of the faunas occurred. The Rocky Mountain Fauna spread northward and westward, to northeastern Washington and, in Canada to the Pacific, occupying most of the land exposed by the glaciers. The Pacific Coastal Fauna spread northward only as far as the relatively slight barrier of the Fraser River. The Cascade Mountains became a "no-man's land." The pika and golden-mantled ground squirrel of the southern Cascades spread northward. Boreal Rocky Mountain forms with no ecologic competitors from the Pacific Coastal Fauna occupied the Cascades. Also, coastal species with no Rocky Mountain competitors occupied the Cascades. Nevertheless, some competition between members of the two faunas ultimately occurred, and in instances where closely related forms occurred in the two faunas, one or the other prevailed in the Cascade Range. For example, the Douglas squirrel and big jumping mouse are now established in that range, but the relative of each occurring in the Rocky Mountains is present in the extreme northeastern Cascades. It is possible that in these two cases, the related form occurring in the Rocky Mountains has just entered the area and that competition has just begun. With regard to the flying squirrel, red-backed mouse and snowshoe rabbit, the more boreal Rocky Mountain representatives have definitely displaced the coastal forms.
Certain mass movements of mammals are popularly believed to have occurred with the advance of the ice sheets of the Pleistocene. The boreal birds and plants on higher peaks of the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada of California are thought to represent relics of faunas that moved northward. Such mass movements probably did occur and there is some evidence of their occurrence in Washington. Probably the pre-Wisconsin flora of coastal British Columbia consisted of coniferous forest similar to that of western Washington today. If this were the case, the mammalian species in British Columbia corresponded closely to those of western Washington. An influx of such a fauna into coastal Washington would scarcely be evident today if, indeed, it was noticeable even then. In eastern Washington, forest species forced southward would come upon the barren, inhospitable plains and deserts of the Columbian Plateau.
The greater part of the southward moving forms found refuge in the Cascade Mountains where, for most of Wisconsin time, they were isolated in the southern Cascades. Examples are Sorex palustris, Martes caurina, Martes pennanti, Gulo luscus, Vulpes fulva, Lynx canadensis, Tamias amoenus, Thomomys talpoides (douglasii group), Phenacomys intermedius, Microtus richardsoni and Ochotona princeps. In each of these species little or no subspecific variation has occurred between the populations in the Cascades of Washington and the Cascades of Oregon.