Fishers are found in forests and riparian corridors with moderate to dense canopy cover and diverse structural stages and plant communities. They use cavities in live or dead standing trees for den sites. Fishers prey on small mammals, including snowshoe hares and porcupines.
Limiting factors
Fishers have extensive home ranges, low reproductive rates, and specialized habitat requirements for den sites. Precise limiting factors remain unclear.
Data gaps
Determine whether populations are expanding and/or reestablishing in extirpated areas. Evaluate the effects of various habitat conditions on fisher persistence. Identify natural or anthropogenic factors that facilitate or impede movement of fishers. Explore feasibility of reintroductions, including ecological and genetic constraints. Develop standardized protocols for assessing resource availability and habitat suitability before reintroductions.
Conservation actions
Maintain complex forest structure with large trees within the fisher's range. Improve habitat patch size and connectivity to provide for dispersal, genetic interchange, and population expansion. Use results of feasibility studies to guide specific conservation actions and management decisions for potential reintroductions. Work with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service to review outcomes of conservation actions. Develop a fisher conservation strategy.
