San Francisco Chronicle

Suit seeks protection for fishers

- By Peter Fimrite

The fate of a shy, weasel-like creature with a taste for porcupines could be decided in a San Francisco courtroom after conservati­on groups this week challenged a federal ruling denying placement of the stubby-legged treedwelle­r on the endangered species list.

A 22-year effort to protect the Pacific fisher ended in April when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service surprised almost everyone by rejecting a petition to list the animal under the Endangered Species Act.

Four environmen­tal groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday at the U.S. District

Court in San Francisco seeking to overturn the decision. The Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmen­tal Protection Informatio­n Center, the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and Sierra Forest Legacy claimed the government buckled to special interests and political expediency.

“It’s a travesty that after finally acknowledg­ing the precarious status of the fisher in 2014, the Fish and Wildlife Service bowed to the timber industry and declined to protect these beautiful carnivores,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Fishers, which are related to martens, wolverines and weasels, lived along the Pacific coast for thousands of years until they were nearly wiped out in California, Oregon and Washington by hunting and loss of habitat. Jody Holzworth, the assistant regional director at the wildlife service, said department scientists reviewed all of the threats to the fisher and decided they were not causing a decline in the predator’s population.

“The service found that the threats to the Pacific fisher are not as significan­t as previously thought,” Holzworth said in a statement. “We found that the West Coast fisher is not at risk of extinction now or in the foreseeabl­e future.”

Pacific fishers are cantankero­us, nocturnal animals with lush fur, long and slender bodies, and short legs. They prefer dense, old-growth forests where they can hunt in the trees and den in hollowed-out areas high in the canopy. About the size of a large house cat, they scavenge carcasses, hunt squirrels, chipmunks and mice, and are one of the few animals that kill and eat porcupines, going for the throat and then turning the spiny beasts over to feed on the stomach.

They also eat roots and plant material. Curiously, though, fishers don’t eat fish. It is believed they were named by early settlers who thought they looked like European polecats, also known in French as fiche or fitchet. The Dutch equivalent, visse, means “nasty.”

The feisty mammals once ranged throughout the Sierra, Klamath, Cascade and Coastal ranges. But hunting, logging and developmen­t drasticall­y reduced their numbers. In the early 20th century, fisher pelts, called North American sable, fetched hundreds of dollars. By 1946, when fur trapping of fishers was banned in California, they were living in less than half of their former range.

Only two population­s now exist in California: one on the border between the Klamath and Coastal mountain ranges, and the other in the southern Sierra near Yosemite. Among the more serious threats are rodenticid­es spread in public forests by drug cartels and other illegal marijuana cultivator­s. A recent study found rodenticid­e contaminat­ion in 75 percent of the Pacific fishers that were tested.

The Center for Biological Diversity first petitioned for an endangered species listing in 1994. Two decades later, in October 2014, the wildlife service made a formal proposal to protect the species, giving conservati­onists hope.

One problem is that nobody really knows exactly how many of the dark-brown creatures are left because they are notoriousl­y difficult research subjects. They have wide ranges, leave few signs and assiduousl­y avoid human contact. Recent estimates had them down to about 850 individual­s.

The government’s rejection wasn’t the first time a weasel family member was denied protection. Conservati­onists filed a lawsuit in 2015 challengin­g the rejection of Humboldt martens. The plaintiffs in the latest suit also claim federal regulators bowed to political pressure when they decided not to list the 300 or so wolverines that still exist in the lower 48 states.

“It’s gotten to the point where no amount of scientific evidence is ever enough for the Fish and Wildlife Service,” said Earthjusti­ce attorney Greg Loarie, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the conservati­on groups.

There are, however, some signs that things are getting better for the fishers. Conservati­on scientists have been working with state and federal wildlife officials in an effort to reintroduc­e the animals to places where they once roamed in California. That includes a campaign to reintroduc­e fishers to private lands owned by timber giant Sierra Pacific Industries in the northern Sierra Nevada, a region they were driven out of 100 years ago.

Results have been mixed, though, and conservati­onists believe the lack of significan­t progress may be because of poisoning from pot farming.

 ?? Pacific Biodiversi­ty Institute ?? Pacific fishers, weasel-like creatures that once ranged throughout the Pacific coast mountains, were denied placement on the endangered species list.
Pacific Biodiversi­ty Institute Pacific fishers, weasel-like creatures that once ranged throughout the Pacific coast mountains, were denied placement on the endangered species list.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States