This site is the blog home for the fisher reintroduciton in the Northern Sierra Nevada of California. We began field work for this project in 2009, though getting us to that point has a history dating back more than 10 years. The feasibility document with a great deal of background information can be found here (WARNING: this is a zip file download of the pdf).
Cooperators
This project is a cooperative effort between:
- California Department of Fish & Wildlife
- Sierra Pacific Industries
- US Fish & Wildlife Service
- North Carolina State University
- Wildlife Conservation Society
We have also received cooperation and support from Michigan-California Timber Company and Fruit Growers Supply Company at our satellite monitoring site in Siskiyou County, CA (dubbed the Eastern Klamath Study Area – EKSA) as well as Green Diamond Resource company (who allowed us to trap on their lands in Humboldt County). The fisher population at the EKSA site has been monitored each year since 2006 and was used as a source population in 2009 and 2010.
Project goals and objectives
The research objectives of this translocation are as follows:
- Document survival, reproduction and use of land cover by the fishers released in theNorthern Sierra Nevadaand their descendants during the first 5 years following release.
- Predict use of habitat by fishers using 4 existing models and a model that we develop, and evaluate the predictions using data on actual use of habitat by fishers.
- Predict placement, sizes, and shapes of home range using models of optimal home range choice and test the predictions using data on actual use of space by fishers.
- Predict patterns of breeding by males from home range placement and familiarity with landscapes and to test those predictions using data on paternity of fishers born in the study area.
- Collect information on the use of structures for natal dens, maternal dens, and for resting
- Sample translocated individuals and fisher recruited into the population for exposure to disease
- Monitor fishers at a donor site pre- and post-translocation to evaluate the effect of removing individuals from a local population
- Use the results of the above objectives to provide the foundation for understanding why the reintroduction succeeded or, if it failed, why it failed.
Northern Sierra Fisher Reintroduction 