This commentary is by Brenna Galdenzi of Stowe, president and co-founder of Protect Our Wildlife.
It shouldn’t have to come to this. Why does it take Protect Our Wildlife, an all-volunteer Vermont nonprofit, to petition Vermont Fish & Wildlife to get them to protect Vermont’s imperiled wildlife?
Fish & 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 on a downward trend.
In February 2024, Brehan Furfey, a wildlife biologist and furbearer project leader at the Fish & Wildlife Department, testified before the Senate Agriculture committee that all of the Vermont fisher samples in a recent study tested positive for rodenticides.
And yet, in addition to the recreational trapping season, Fish & Wildlife also allows year-round killing of fisher and other animals labeled as “furbearer” species under the dangerously permissive “wild animals doing damage” statute, title 10 V.S.A. §4828.
Jennifer Lovett, a POW board member, who also has a master’s degree 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 & Wildlife Department and Board.
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In the report, she states, “Considerable evidence has established that they (fishers) are endangered by SGARs (second generation anticoagulant rodenticides) and that this threat is on the population level.”
In one of the studies referenced in Lovett’s report, the study’s authors state, “the near universal exposure of the fishers sampled suggest that AR exposure is widespread and represents an underestimated health risk to wild fishers.” There should be no green-washing of this threat: Vermont’s fishers 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 who perform an outsized role in 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.
The petition will be heard on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. Will Fish & Wildlife seek to downplay the threats and obfuscate what is a clear decline in fisher population? Or will they take this opportunity and reach across the aisle and do what is right?
Read the story on VTDigger here: Brenna Galdenzi: We need a moratorium on trapping fishers.