FORKS – Fishers could be reintroduced to Olympic National Park as early as this winter, said a biologist at a public hearing this week.
The timing is contingent on positive public comment on the environmental assessment and on funding approval, said Patti Happe, biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, on Tuesday.
The animals would be released as deep in the Olympic National Park as possible, Happe said.
“They are pretty shy, so we don’t expect that they will frequent residential areas,” she said.
A group of about 10 park employees and three area residents attended the Forks meeting about reintroducing the member of the weasel family, which is about the size of a housecat.
No audience members made a formal comment.
Fishers are native to the forested areas of Washington state, including the North Olympic Peninsula.
They largely vanished because of overtrapping in the late 1800s and early 1900s and the loss of old-growth forest habitats.
