Elsevier

Biological Conservation

Volume 114, Issue 1, November 2003, Pages 79-90
Biological Conservation

Extirpation and reintroduction of fishers (Martes pennanti) in Oregon: implications for their conservation in the Pacific states

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(03)00003-XGet rights and content

Abstract

Prior to extensive European settlement, the fisher (Martes pennanti) occupied most coniferous forest habitats in Washington, Oregon, and California. Human activities since that time have resulted in the apparent extirpation of fishers throughout much of their historical range in the Pacific states. Fisher extirpations in California and Washington have been documented previously, but no comprehensive assessments of the distribution of fishers in Oregon, the history of their translocation into Oregon, or the conservation of fishers in the Pacific states have been conducted. Our objectives are to (1) review historical information on potential causes for fisher population losses in Oregon, (2) document the history of their translocation into Oregon, (3) describe the distribution of fishers in Oregon relative to those translocations and determine if any were successful, and (4) discuss the implications of our findings for the conservation of fishers in the Pacific states. Our results show that extant populations of fishers in Oregon are restricted to two disjunct and genetically isolated populations in the southwestern portion of the state: one in the southern Cascade Range and one in the northern Siskiyou Mountains. In addition, historical changes in the distribution of fisher occurrence records in Oregon and geographic variation in the genetic composition and size of fishers occurring in southwestern Oregon, show that the population in the southern Cascade Range is reintroduced and is descended from fishers that were translocated to Oregon from British Columbia and Minnesota. The loss of fisher populations from central and northern Oregon and throughout Washington has resulted in the isolation of extant populations in Oregon by >650 km from those occurring in southern British Columbia. Our results demonstrate that the historical continuity in fisher distribution that once provided for genetic interchange among fisher populations in the Pacific states no longer exists.

Section snippets

Review of historical information

To evaluate potential causes for the extirpation of fisher populations in Oregon, we examined published literature, unpublished reports and documents at museums and state and federal resource management agencies, and the field notes of trappers and early naturalists. Because of strong commonalities in the vegetative composition and physiography of forested habitats in Washington and Oregon, habitat conditions for fishers are similar in both states (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973). Consequently, we

Direct mortality from trapping and predator control efforts

Overtrapping appears to have been the primary initial cause of fisher population losses in this region (Grinnell et al., 1937, Marshall, 1992, Scheffer, 1995). During the early 1900s, fishers were among the most valuable of all terrestrial furbearers (Novak et al., 1987, Lewis and Zielinski, 1996); in the early 1920s, prime skins were reportedly worth up to $150 each (Bailey, 1936). In addition, fishers are easily trapped (Powell, 1993), and the low- to mid-elevation coniferous forests where

Extirpation of fisher populations in the Pacific Northwest

Because of their low densities and reproductive rates, fisher populations are particularly susceptible to overtrapping; even small increases in mortality rates above natural levels may lead to local extirpations (Powell, 1979a, Powell, 1993). Powell (1979a) predicted that fisher populations at equilibrium densities in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan would decline to extinction if they were subjected to annual human-caused mortality rates of <1 to about 4 fishers per 100 km2, depending on the

Acknowledgements

We thank W. Zielinski of the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station for allowing us to use unpublished data on weights of fishers from northwestern California, and for technical support throughout the course of this study. We thank M. Badry of the British Columbia Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection for providing data on recent trapping records of fishers in southern British Columbia. We are grateful to W. Zielinski, R. Powell, and C. Raley for helpful comments on a

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