Pubdate: Thu, 09 Oct 2014
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Peter Fimrite
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?208 (Environmental Issues)

ENDANGERED LIST MAY SAVE PREDATOR FROM POT-GROWING CARTELS

A shy, stubby-legged creature known as a Pacific fisher was proposed 
this week for listing under the Endangered Species Act, giving 
conservationists hope that the rare and elusive predator can be 
returned to the forests of California, Oregon and Washington.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will spend the next year taking 
public comment and gathering information on the weasel-like mammal 
that dines on porcupine and lives in old-growth forests.

Fishers, which lived along the Pacific coast for thousands of years, 
were nearly wiped out by hunting and loss of habitat from logging. 
But in an odd twist, the biggest threats now to the smooth-coated 
critters are cannabis cultivators.

Drug cartels and others have increasingly been setting up huge, 
illegal marijuana farms in public forests and spreading deadly 
rodenticides to kill the pests that might ruin their plants. The 
furtive fishers have been hit hard. Recent studies have found 
rodenticides in 75 percent of the fishers tested.

"I'm elated that 14 years after we first tried to get these elusive 
animals protected, they're finally proposed for the Endangered 
Species Act protection they need to survive," said Noah Greenwald, 
endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity, 
who first authored a petition to protect the fisher in 2000. "Now 
more than ever, fishers need protection from old-growth forest 
logging, trapping and poisoning."

Pacific fishers are cantankerous, nocturnal animals with lush fur, 
long, slender bodies and short legs. They are related to martens, 
wolverines and weasels. The females are half the size of the males, 
which weigh about 10 pounds. They mate in the spring, but otherwise 
have little to do with one another.

Prey on porcupines

Fishers prefer dense, old-growth forests where they can hunt in the 
trees and den in hollowed-out areas up high. They hunt squirrels, 
chipmunks and mice, and often scavenge carcasses. They also eat roots 
and plant material. They 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.

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, development and 
habitat loss drastically reduced their numbers. In the early 20th 
century, fisher pelts, called North American sable, fetched hundreds 
of dollars.

Tough to count

No one knows exactly how many of the furry, 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.

What is known is that 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: on the 
border between the Klamath and Coastal mountain ranges, and in the 
southern Sierra near Yosemite.

Conservation scientists have been working with state and federal 
wildlife officials and the timber giant Sierra Pacific Industries in 
an effort to reintroduce the animals to places where they once roamed 
in California. Results have been mixed, and conservationists believe 
the lack of significant progress may be because of poisoning from pot farming.

The proposed listing was published Oct. 7, beginning a 90-day public 
comment period. A final decision is not expected for another year.

"This is a complex and challenging issue because threats to the 
fisher vary across its range," said Robyn Thorson, the Pacific region 
director for the Fish and Wildlife Service. "We are actively seeking 
input from the public and stakeholders to help determine the 
magnitude, severity and scope of those threats in each part of its 
range in California, Oregon and Washington to ensure we base our 
final decision on the best information available."
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