For Immediate Release:
April 8, 2004
Contact:
Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity, 503-484-7495
Craig Thomas, Sierra Forest Legacy, 530-622-8718
Greg Loarie, Earthjustice, 510-550-6725
BUSH ADMINISTRATION ILLEGALLY DELAYS PROTECTION OF PACIFIC FISHER
Administration Plays Politics While Rare Otter Like Mammal Headed For Extinction
The Bush Administration announced today that the Pacific fisher, a rare relative of the otter and mink and denizen of old-growth forests, warrants protection as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), but is precluded by other higher priority listing actions. The ESA allows the Administration to delay listing a species by declaring it “warranted but precluded” if it can demonstrate there are other species that are more in need of protection and hence a higher priority for listing, and that they are making expeditious progress towards listing these other species. The finding was issued in response to a petition from a coalition of groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Forest Legacy.
“The Bush Administration’s further delay of protection for the fisher is illegal,” states Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, “and we intend to fight the decision in court.” The Administration is allowed to declare a species warranted but precluded if and only if they can demonstrate they are making expeditious progress towards listing other species. The Bush Administration, however, has the poorest listing record of any administration since the ESA was passed. To date, the Administration has listed only 29 species. By comparison, the Clinton Administration listed 394 species during its first term. The Bush administration is the only presidency in the history of the ESA to have not listed a single species except in response to petitions and/or lawsuits by scientists and environmental groups. The Bush Administration is also the first presidency to deny listing for more species (36) than it has listed. Clearly, the Administration is not making expeditious progress towards listing species.
At the same time that the Administration is dragging its feet on protecting the fisher, it has substantially weakened protections for its late-sucessional forest habitats. In the Sierra Nevada, the Administration gutted the Sierra Nevada Framework, a plan that was in part designed to protect the fisher, and in the Northwest, the Administration weakened protections for old-growth forests through rule changes that removed the “Survey and Manage Program” and weakened the “Aquatic Conservation Strategy.” “The Bush Administration will stop at nothing to please their friends and campaign contributors in the timber industry,” states Craig Thomas, executive director of the Sierra Forest Legacy, “even if it means driving species to extinction and allowing further degradation of west coast forests.”
Because of a combination of logging of old-growth forests and historic fur-trapping, the fisher has been extirpated from all of Washington, most of Oregon and half its range in California. It is now found in two disjunct populations—one in northwestern California and extreme southwestern Oregon, and another in the southern Sierra Nevada. Endangered status for the fisher would have required protection for old-growth forests, benefiting the entire ecosystem. It would have provided funding for research and boosted efforts to reintroduce the fisher into Oregon and Washington. “Protection of the fisher and the old-growth forests it depends on is absolutely necessary and required by the ESA,” notes Greg Loarie, an attorney with Earthjustice, who represented the groups on the suit to force Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision today.
Background:
Fisher description and natural history
The fisher has a long, slender body with short legs. Its head is triangular, with a sharp, pronounced muzzle and large, rounded ears. Fishers are mostly brown, with a long bushy tail. Males range up to 47 inches in length, while females typically only reach 37 inches. Fishers run in a bounding gait, with their front feet leaping forward together, followed by the back feet. Unlike other carnivores, such as cats and dogs, fishers walk on their whole foot.
Contrary to its name, the fisher does not eat fish. The name probably relates to a poor translation of the name for the European polecat, which is a relative of the fisher and is called the fitch ferret, fichet or fitche. Instead of fish, the fisher has a diverse diet, preying on small mammals, snowshoe hare, porcupine, birds, carrion, fruit and truffles. Because it is the only animal that regularly preys on porcupines, which often kill or damage small trees, the timber industry reintroduced the fisher to many parts of the U.S., including the southern Cascades of Oregon. The fisher kills porcupines with repeated bites to the face, devouring the porcupine via the quill-less underbelly. Where fisher reintroductions have been successful, porcupines have indeed declined in number.
The Petition to list the Fisher:
The petition to list the fisher was filed by a coalition of 17 groups November 28, 2000. According to the ESA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is required to determine whether a species warrants listing within 12 months of receiving a petition. Today’s finding is thus nearly two and a half years late and comes only after the groups, represented by Earthjustice, obtained a court order forcing the agency to make a decision.
The groups on the original petition included: Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Forest Legacy, American Lands, Biodiversity Legal Foundation, Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation, Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, Environmental Protection Information Center, Forest Interest Group, Friends of the Kalmiopsis, Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Plumas Forest Project, Predator Conservation Alliance, Sierra Forest Legacy, Siskiyou Project, Siskiyou Action Project, and Yosemite Area Audubon.