Final Fisher Status Report Sep/98 - PDF Format (1,209K) Draft Fisher Status Report Apr/98 - PDF Format (1,088K) See also: Washington State Recovery Plan for the Fisher Assessment of Fisher Habitat in Washington State: Tier 1 and Tier 2 Final Report Implementation Plan for Reintroducing Fishers to Olympic National Park Feasibility Assessment for Reintroducing Fishers to Washington The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife maintains lists of species that are endangered, threatened, or sensitive in the state. The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission has adopted listing procedures developed in 1990 by a group of citizens, interest groups, and state and federal agencies (WAC 232-12-297). The procedures describe the process for listing species, criteria for listing and delisting, public review, and recovery and management. The first step in listing or delisting species is writing a status report that reviews a species’ status and addresses factors affecting its continued existence. Factors include, but are not limited to, historic, current, and expected population trends; natural history, including ecological relationships; historic and current habitat trends; population demographics and their relationship to long-term sustainability; and past and present management activities. Each status report undergoes a 90-day public review, during which the Department holds public meetings to receive comments and new information. Following the review period, the Department completes a final status report and listing recommendation. These undergo an additional 30-day review prior to being presented to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission. State Environmental Policy Act documents are issued concurrently with final status reports and undergo a 14-day public review. The Commission makes a decision to list or delist species solely on biological status of a species. This is a Final Status Report for the Fisher. Submit written comments on this report by October 1, 1998 to: Endangered Species Program Manager, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 600 Capitol Way N, Olympia WA 98501-1091 or e-mail your comments to wildthing@dfw.wa.gov. The Department will present the results of this status review to the Fish and Wildlife Commission for action at its October 27, 1998 meeting.

Final Fisher Status Report: Executive Summary Fishers historically occurred throughout much of the forested areas of Washington, though they were not particularly abundant. The fisher was over-trapped in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Trapping, predator and pest control programs, and loss and alteration of habitat combined to push the fisher to near extirpation. Despite protection from legal harvest for 64 years, the fisher has not recovered. The fisher population may have been kept from recovering by a combination of factors. These factors likely include: a reduction in quality and quantity of habitat due to development and logging; past predator and pest control programs; low inherent reproductive capacity of the species; and demographic and genetic effects of small population size. Fisher biology is characterized by low population density and a low reproductive rate. They have large home ranges and generally avoid large openings, which suggests that viable populations would require large areas of relatively contiguous habitat. Throughout their range, fishers are generally associated with late-successional coniferous and mixed coniferous-deciduous forest. In western Washington, fishers may have been restricted by frequent soft snows or deep snow packs to elevations below 1800 m. Forests with high canopy closure, multiple canopies, shrubs, and that support a diverse prey base are most used. Large diameter trees, large snags, tree cavities, and logs are most often used for den and rest sites, and are an important component of suitable habitat. Currently, the fisher is very rare in Washington. Infrequent sighting reports and incidental captures indicate that a small number may still be present. However, despite extensive surveys, no one has been able to confirm the existence of a population in the state. The lack of detections of fishers given the extensive carnivore surveys conducted since 1990, an average of less than four fisher sightings per year since 1980, and few incidental captures by trappers, all indicate that fishers are very rare in Washington and could become completely extirpated. We believe that any remaining fishers in Washington are unlikely to represent a viable population, and without a recovery program that includes reintroductions, the species is likely to be extirpated from the state. For these reasons, the Department recommends that the fisher be listed as an endangered species in the state of Washington. For more information on wildlife management issues, please contact WDFW Wildlife Management Program. Phone: 360-902-2515 E-mail: wildthing@dfw.wa.gov Files formatted in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print. You can download the free reader directly from Adobe. Windows versions are approximately 4MB in size.