This scene from Mount Rainier National Park last December could be recreated at North Cascades National Park this winter if $80,000 can be raised by October 1/NPS, Kevin Bacher

Washington’s National Park Fund, in partnership with North Cascades National Park, is planning to release a population of fishers (Martes pennanti) into the park next winter. This follows successful recovery programs in Olympic and Mount Rainier national parks. But $80,000 is needed to underwrite the project at North Cascades.

The funds are needed by October 1 to pay for trapping, boarding, and veterinary expertise for 40 fishers. To date, $15,000 has been raised.

The project:

• The fisher is a medium-sized carnivore in the weasel family native to Washington State’s forests.
• Fishers were extinct in Washington State due to over-hunting, habitat loss and fragmentation of habitat.
• The first stage of this project released and monitored approximately 80 fishers in the south Cascades of Washington (2015-2018). This project is the second stage and will eventually release and monitor 80 fishers in the North Cascades.
• Monitoring and research efforts associated with the project will involve aerial- and ground-telemetry tracking of fishers to allow park and wildlife officials to monitor location, survival status, and movements.

What funding will pay for:

• Procuring the fishers costs $2,000 each from capture to placement. Trappers are paid cash for each live animal procured. Forty fishers are needed for the scheduled winter release dates.
• This funding will also support an existing facility in central British Columbia which processes the live animals, including health checks, vaccinations, and having veterinarians on duty to monitor the animals daily.
• The project supports the National Park Service mission to preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.

What’s the urgency?

• The funding is needed to continue an uninterrupted working relationship with the trappers in central British Columbia who supply the animals. If the program cannot pay for live fishers, the trappers will either return to lethal trapping for fur or permits will be re-allocated for other states’ own fisher reintroduction projects.

Why do we need fishers in our forests?

• Fishers play an important role in ecological function. Because they typically are more abundant than other large carnivores, they have the potential to influence the abundance and distribution of other species through predation, competition and dispersal of seeds and pollen when transported in fur.
• Because they prey on many important seed predators in western coniferous forests, they may indirectly shape forest plant communities through their influence on the population dynamics of these species.
• Repatriation of the species will contribute toward restoring ecosystem function in the Pacific Northwest. A healthy ecosystem has all its members in attendance.

Past successes:

• Olympic National Park, 2008-09, released 90 fishers, documented mothers with kits. 
• Mount Rainier National Park, 2015-16, released 80 fishers, June 2017 documented mother with kit. 

The project is a partnership with the following organizations: National Park Service, US Forest Service, WA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, US Fish & Wildlife Svc., BC Ministry of Environment, Conservation Northwest, Tribes & First Nations. Washington’s National Park Fund has contributed funds for past fisher releases of $40,000 to Mount Rainier and $60,000 to Olympic National Park.