The reintroduction of the fisher to the southwestern Cascades region, where the species has been absent since the 1990s, will begin Thursday with the first release of the animal Thursday at the Cispus Learning Center in Randle. Later 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 leading the restoration of animal in the Cascades in order to round out the area's ecosystem, officials said. The fisher, the fifth-largest member of the weasel family, exist only in North America. They are believed to be the only native carnivore that's extirpated (absent) from the Cascade range in Washington.
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