Group seeks fisher protection

A coalition of area advocacy groups have filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking Endangered Species Act protection for the Northern Rockies fisher, a carnivore that lives in old-growth forests along the border of Montana and North Idaho.

The fisher is a member of the weasel family with a slender, brown body and long bushy tail.

It nearly went extinct several years ago because of trapping and logging of old-growth forests, said Tierra Curry, a biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity and primary author of the petition.

"This feisty carnivore that eats porcupines for breakfast has already fought off extinction once," Curry said. "But now it needs Endangered Species Act protection to protect it from the many threats it's facing."

Other groups advocating for the protection include Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Clearwater, Friends of the Bitterroot, Friends of the Wild Swan and Western Watersheds Project.

The fisher is only found in North America. It is common in the Northeast and Midwest, but is one of the rarest carnivores in the Northwest.

Fishers are legally trapped in Montana. In Idaho and Montana they are sometimes accidentally caught in traps set for other species such as martens and bobcats.

In recent years, the number of fishers caught in traps set for other species has increased dramatically, raising concerns for the rare carnivore's survival, advocacy groups say.

The Northern Rockies fisher is found only in sections of western Montana and North Idaho, but it once ranged from eastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta through areas of northeastern Washington, southern Idaho, central Montana, northwest Wyoming and north-central Utah.

Conservation groups originally petitioned for protection for the Northern Rockies fisher in 2009. The FWS denied the petition. The agency is expected to issue a ruling on the new petition within a year.