About-Face: Feds Deny Endangered Species Protections For Pacific Fisher

"The Pacific fisher, a small, weasel-like predator whose numbers in Oregon's forests have plummeted since European settlement of the West, will not join the federal endangered species list.

Backtracking from a 2014 finding that federal protection was needed to save the fisher from extinction — amid pressure from wildfires, logging and pesticide use in the marijuana industry — the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday it won't list the cat-sized furbearer.

What changed? Federal wildlife managers now say those threats aren't harming fishers as much as they'd thought. The animal's real problem, they say, is a slow rebound from the trapping, hunting and habitat loss that decimated its ranks decades ago."

Kelly House reports for the Portland Oregonian April 14, 2016.