FWS Proposes Protecting Mink-like Fishers from Pot Farm Poisons

"PORTLAND — New threats and a legal settlement prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal today to list West Coast populations of fisher as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The fisher, an elusive cousin of the mink, otter and weasel, was first driven into scarcity by fur trappers and loggers in the late 1800s. Today it’s getting poisoned by marijuana growers.

Once prevalent throughout the West Coast, natural fisher populations have been relegated to pockets of Northern California and far Southern Oregon, deep in public forests where they’ve found themselves sharing land with illegal marijuana farms. Those farms use heavy amounts of rat poison and do so in ways not intended by the label, federal wildlife officials said."

Tony Schick reports for OPB/EarthFix October 6, 2014.