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Five conservation groups threatened legal action over a federal decision not to extend Endangered Species Act protections to fishers in Northern California and southwestern Oregon.
The rare forest-dwelling predator’s West Coast numbers have declined significantly.
Conservation Groups Threaten To Sue Over Denied Protections for Fishers
Fishers, which are relatives of martens and wolverines, depend on mature and old-growth forests for survival.
Their West Coast populations have declined substantially following decades of fur trapping and logging, with habitat destruction, increasingly severe wildfires, and exposure to rodenticides continuing to threaten the animals.
Only three isolated native populations of fishers remain along the U.S. West Coast, according to the conservation groups. Two are in California’s southern Sierra Nevada mountains, and one spans Northern California and southwestern Oregon.
The Center for Biological Diversity and four other organizations notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on October 28 of their intent to sue, challenging the agency’s denial of protections under the Endangered Species Act.
The notice was filed on behalf of five conservation organizations, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and Cascadia Wildlands.
The conservation groups previously challenged federal decisions over fishers. After an earlier legal challenge, the agency did extend protections to the southern Sierra Nevada population in 2020, but declined for other West Coast populations.
Another lawsuit in 2022 prompted the Service to reconsider its decision, but it again declined to extend protections in 2025.
Federal Agency Cites Existing Fisher Conservation Measures in Defense
In its August 2025 finding, the Fish and Wildlife Service found that the Northern California–Southern Oregon fisher population wasn’t currently in danger of extinction, nor likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future across all or a significant portion of its range.
The assessment considered population trends, distribution, habitat conditions and connectivity between populations.
The agency also pointed to existing conservation measures, including sensitive-species management across federal lands covering roughly half the population’s range, tribal forest-management practices and voluntary agreements with state and private landowners.
These agreements cover over 3.4 million acres, with additional habitat conservation plans spanning over 575,000 acres.
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