-Dec 23 2011-
After three years of much discussion, thinking and hard work we have finally finished moving our target number of fishers (24 females and 16 males). We have taken fishers from many places in Northern California on publicly and privately managed lands. Fishers have been released in Deer Creek, Butte Creek and and the West Branch of the Feather River. These represent 3 distinct and important watersheds that occur on the Stirling district. Our goal in releasing fishers in these diverse and widely distributed areas are to place fishers throughout much of the district, allow them access to varied land cover types, and to avoid placing them in the established home ranges of animals that have already been released (this was primarily a concern in years 2 and 3). Fishers often do not stay in the areas we released them in, but to a large degree they have settled over a large portion of the Stirling district. After 2 years of study we know fishers occur in all the major water sheds located on the Stirling district and in lots of diverse areas and elevations (ranging from 2000 to 6000 feet).
A lot of people and groups have made this happen and it has been an interesting and fun group to work with. It is clear that we could not have gone as far as we have without all those contributions.
Now that the work of moving animals to Stirling is over we will concentrate our efforts on the animals that have been moved and their offspring. In addition, we still have lots to learn about what areas they prefer and how this affects the success of the reintroduction and what that information tells us about what fishers need. It promises to be a lot of fun!
-ANF-
Roger waiting for male F605B to leave the box
Kevin releasing male 18AA5 (fisher is on left side of picture)
Aaron letting a fisher go
Northern Sierra Fisher Reintroduction 