By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch The reintroduction of the fisher to the southwestern Cascades region, where the species has been absent since the 1990s, began earlier this month and soon will spread to Mount Rainier. The first release of the animal into the Cascade environs was accomplished Dec. 3 at the Cispus Learning Center in Randle. Coming up this winter, fishers also are scheduled to be reintroduced in the Longmire and Ohanapecosh areas of Mount Rainier National Park, said Kathy Steichen, the park's chief of interpretation and education. The National Park Service is one of the leaders of the restoration of the animal in the Cascades in order to return the missing link to the area's ecosystem. The fisher, the fifth-largest member of the weasel family, exists only in North America. An adult fisher is about the size and weight of a house cat (eight to 12 pounds), with a bushy tail, short, rounded ears and short legs. They are believed to be the only native carnivore that's absent from the Cascade range in Washington, having disappeared more than two decades ago as a result of over-trapping and loss of forested habitat. The plan for restoring fishers includes bringing them from central British Columbia in Canada and monitoring them in Washington for at least three years after their reintroduction in the state. The return started in 2008. Through a partnership involving Conservation Northwest, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), and the National Park Service, fishers were reintroduced to the Olympic Peninsula. Ninety of them were released there in a three-years period, and since then they've reportedly been reproducing and spreading across the peninsula. Now the animal's rebound is expanding to the Cascades. Approximately 80 fishers will be released into the south and central Cascades, starting with the release in Randle earlier this month and continuing into February 2017. The reintroduction at Mount Rainier National Park will come in that stretch. Two to three years later, releases are planned in the north Cascades in North Cascades National Park and in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Conservationists are praising the stewardship of the fisher effort. "Washington's Cascades and Mount Rainier National Park in particular are icons of our region. We have a responsibility to do what we can to make these wild places whole once again with all their native wildlife,GÇ¥ said Mitch Friedman, executive director of Conservation Northwest, a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. Friedman said the return of fishers to the Cascades means that "we're restoring an important piece of the ecosystem and our shared natural heritage. That's something all Washingtonians should be proud of.GÇ¥ Funding for the project, totaling about $300,000, has come from WDFW, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Conservation Northwest.
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