LETTER: State to review petition to end trapping of fisher
October 11, 2024To the community:
It shouldn’t have to come to this. Why does it take Protect Our Wildlife, an all-volunteer Vermont nonprofit, to petition the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife to get them to protect Vermont’s imperiled wildlife?
Fish and Wildlife is well aware that the fisher population is in danger due to rodenticide poisoning and other threats, however they still allow a recreational trapping season with no limit on the number of animals that may be killed. According to their own data, the population is trending downward.
Fish and Wildlife furbearer biologist Brehan Furfey testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee in February 2024 concerning rodenticide. You can view her brief testimony on Protect Our Wildlife’s YouTube page. At the 42-second mark, she states that all of the fisher samples tested positive for rodenticide poisoning. Despite this, in addition to the recreational trapping season, Fish and Wildlife also allows year-round killing of fisher and other animals labeled as “furbearer” species under the dangerously permissive “wild animals causing damage” statute, title 10 V.S.A. §4828.
A Protect Our Wildlife board member who also has a masters in Conservation Biology spent the last few months analyzing data and took a deep dive into the issue. She shared her findings in a report that she submitted to the Fish and Wildlife Department and Board. Regarding fishers, she states, “Considerable evidence has established that they are endangered by Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides and that this threat is on the population level.”
Writing about one of the studies referenced in the report, the author states: “… the near universal exposure of the fishers sampled suggest that rodenticide exposure is widespread and represents an underestimated health risk to wild fishers.” There should be no green-washing of this threat: Vermont’s fisher are in trouble.
The fisher (Pekania pennanti) is a carnivorous forest-dwelling mammal native to North America. It is a member of the Mustelid (weasel) family and is closely related to the American marten, an endangered species in Vermont. Traps that are set for fisher also place protected marten in direct danger (which is another reason to stop the trapping of fisher). A trap set for fisher cannot differentiate between the intended target and a look-alike species, the marten.
Fisher are a vital predator species that performs an outsized role of keeping small mammal and rodent populations in check. They are an important contributor to healthy ecosystems. There is no biological imperative to kill them. There is, however, empirical evidence to protect them.
A petition from Protect Our Wildlife calling for a moratorium on trapping fisher will be heard on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 5 p.m. Will Fish and Wildlife seek to downplay the threats and obfuscate what is a clear decline in population or will they take this opportunity and reach across the aisle and do what is right?
Brenna Galdenzi
Stowe
Brenda Galdenzi is president of the nonprofit animal welfare organization, Protect Our Wildlife.