Fisher Comments Needed – Deadline February 11, 2017
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering granting Endangered Species Act protections for the Northern Rocky Mountain population of fisher. There is currently limited information on the status of fishers in the Northern Rocky Mountains and wildlife managers are unsure of how many currently reside in the proposed area of protection. Please provide comments to the USFWS that you would like to see this population protected. Fisher are highly susceptible to being caught in marten traps and have likely been extirpated from Wyoming. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department continues to allow mostly unregulated trapping in habitat that would support fishers.
Missing Fisher to be Considered for Protected List article in the Jackson Hole News and Guide.
How to comment:
Visit the regulations.gov website.
Additional information on the potential action.
Deadline February 11, 2017
The USFWS is specifically looking for biological information to determine the current status of the distinct population segment of fisher and what threats exist to the fisher in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Comments should contain scientific information and focus on causes of fisher mortality.
. Trapping still remains a very viable threat to these animals in Idaho, Montana and
Threatened and Endangered Species: Trapping Has Implications
Are fisher extirpated in Wyoming?
Do we want the opportunity to view fisher in Wyoming? Some evidence suggests our mesopredators (often the target of trapping as ‘furbearer’) are disappearing, including the fisher and lynx. Wyoming houndsmen believe our bobcats are reaching record lows due to uncontrolled trapping just so a handful of people can benefit from the sale of the fur off the backs of these persecuted, secretive mesopredators.
The fisher is believed to be extirpated from the state, but what if the limited monitoring data is incorrect? Animals under Endangered Species Act listing deserve protection. Assuming ESA species are absent from the state has implications, as it allows trapping to continue in unlimited, unmonitored ways in what may well be critical habitat.
If you have any information about a fisher sighting, please share with us.
If you spot either animal, alive or not, in a trap or free, past or present or future, please share details and photos. Helpful information includes photos of tracks with a scale for comparison and location coordinates. Conclusions regarding the presence of fishers could be made more easily if there is verifiable physical evidence.
Send to info@wyominguntrapped.org or call 307-201-2422.
Thank you!