Endangered Species Law & Policy

On August 6, 2015, the California Fish and Game Commission (Commission) voted to list the southern Sierra Nevada evolutionarily significant unit of the fisher (Pekania pennati) as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act, but determined not to list the northern California evolutionarily significant unit.  In doing so, the Commission followed the recommendation of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (Department).

According to the Department’s status review, [n]ative populations of fishers currently occur in Canada, the western United States (southwestern Oregon, California, Idaho, and Montana) and in portions of the northeastern United States (North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine).  The status review goes on to state that [i]n California, fishers inhabit portions of the Coast Range, Klamath Mountains, southern Cascade Mountains, northern Sierra Nevada, and the southern Sierra Nevada.  The southern Sierra Nevada evolutionarily significant unit of the fisher extends from Kern County in the south to Mariposa County in the north.