In order to ensure recovery of the fisher, this plan must protect all habitat within the southern Sierra Nevada, where there is currently a highly imperiled population of fisher, and provide sufficient habitat in the northern and central Sierra Nevada to allow fisher to recolonize this portion of the range. Endangered status for the fisher requires protection for old-growth forests, benefiting the entire ecosystem. It would also provide additional funding for research and boost efforts to reintroduce the fisher into parts of its range where it no longer occurs, such as the northern and central Sierra Nevada. The fisher has a long, slender body with short legs. Its head is triangular, with a sharp, pronounced muzzle and large, rounded ears.
Fishers are mostly brown, with a long bushy tail.
Males range up to 47 inches in length, while females typically only reach 37 inches. Fishers run in a bounding gait, with their front feet leaping forward together, followed by the back feet. Unlike other carnivores, such as cats and dogs, fishers walk on their whole foot. Contrary to its name, the fisher does not eat fish. The name probably relates to a poor translation of the name for the European polecat, which is a relative of the fisher and is called the fitch ferret, fichet or fitche.