Forest Focus Transcript: Episode 39: Finding Fishers

Paul Wade [00:00:14] Welcome to episode 39 of Forest Focus. I'm your host, Paul Wade, with the regional Public Affairs and Communications Office. Have you ever been curious how we know a species is endangered? How do we determine their population numbers? Our region has a carnivore monitoring program that has hundreds of cameras capturing some very interesting, eye opening, sometimes entertaining, but always helpful, footage. Jamie Hinrichs looks into how we are monitoring a few of our unique and threatened animals. The fisher and marten. 

[music begins: xylophone and chimes, mysterious and curious mood]

Mara Speck [00:01:00] I kind of think they look like a stretched-out cat. 

Mikayla Barnett [00:01:05] Just an oversized ... weasel. 

Micah [00:01:09] A large housecat mixed with a weasel. 

Brad Smith [00:01:13] A cross between an otter and a raccoon, or an angry, stretched-out cat with long whiskers. 

Maggie [00:01:20] I'd say it looks like a wolverine mixed with a small ferret and a cat and little bit of grizzly bear.

[music ends]

Jamie Hinrichs [00:01:32] Endangered species can be difficult to describe. Such is the case for the fisher. The creature combination of a stretched out cat, weasel and grizzly bear, as just described. 

Species are designated as endangered when their population is in significant decline, which often means documentation of these species in their natural habitat is increasingly challenging. Perhaps as difficult as landing on a conclusive verbal description of how they look. But knowing where endangered species like the fisher are in the landscape and how many of them are there, is essential for their conservation and recovery. It helps forest managers and partners know which parts of the landscape should be prioritized for protection or future restoration. 

When it comes to the federal listing of wildlife under the Endangered Species Act, populations of wildlife may be broken down into groups based on geographical, ecological, or behavioral factors. Due to these factors, some of these population groups may be in greater decline than others. The technical term for these groups is distinct population segments. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the distinct population segment of fishers that live in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains as endangered due to the collective impacts of toxicants, climate change, a small population size, tree mortality and wildfire. 

To rise to the challenge of documenting a creature that is rarely seen in person, a wildlife crew working in national forests of the southern Sierra Nevada is blending, tried-and-true survey tools with up-and-coming computer modeling to enhance efforts to protect and recover the endangered fisher. This is all part of an ongoing project decades in the making. 

[music begins: cello & piano]
Welcome to episode seven of Echoes from the Understory. This series is all about forest health, what it means, why it matters, and how it is secured. Audio gives us boots on the ground, connections with our public lands where we can immerse ourselves in the soundtrack of forest health. 

One indicator of forest health is biodiversity, which is the variety of organisms you can find in a forest. Each organism fulfills a role within the forest to keep it functioning. The level of biodiversity that is required for a forest to be healthy and functioning varies by forest type. Research and land managers monitor how work done in the forest affects native species so that negative impacts can be minimized. And documenting the whereabouts of species in the forest with a variety of tools and technology helps them do this. 

In this episode, we visit with a wildlife crew that is carrying forward a 20-year strong monitoring effort to gather data that is used to protect, restore, and better understand the endangered fisher. A tour through their survey method menagerie is also an excursion through the evolution of wildlife conservation technology. The tools that came before are not discarded but are carried forward to strengthen and be strengthened by the latest innovations. Tracks, photographs, fur samples, and artificial intelligence are all part of the mix. 

[music ends]

We find our guides at their work center within the Sierra National Forest during a week between field outings as they download data recently collected, and prepare to head back out into the field again soon. 

Brad Smith [00:05:17] My name is Brad Smith. I work with the Forest Service as their program manager for the Sierra Nevada Carnivore Monitoring Project, and I've been on this project since 2011, starting off as a technician and then as a crew leader, and then coming back to run the field operations and manage the research that we do. We have a crew right now of seven technicians and three onsite supervisors, and they run the carnivore monitoring project here. And as far as carnivore research goes in North America, it's one of the longstanding ones. Hopefully the protocols that we test can inform other projects, hoping to study similar creatures sufficiently, effectively. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:05:52] The Monitoring Project for Fishers started in 2002. For over 20 years, crew members have added new survey tools as they have become available. The tool that has been used since the beginning is the track plate. Brad takes us to get a closer look at one. 

Brad Smith [00:06:11] So they put these boxes out on the forest. It's got a steel base here with some lips that hold these plastic sections that we fold into place. We'll take a piece of metal, slide it in here, and it's got sticky contact paper on it. And so by lightly brushing a layer of toner on there and then putting a piece of bait back here, you slide it in. And the intension as the animal would then walk on it and then leave us a nice little track on the paper there. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:06:38] These boxes function as footprint stations with a snack as a reward. The animal enters the box for the food and does not realize it is leaving record of its prints on the paper within the box. That paper has been brushed with toner, which is a color powder similar to what we can find in a printer cartridge. After about ten years, the project incorporated another bit of technology. Camera stations. 

Brad Smith [00:07:01] In addition to this, which can sit out for a week and only get us one animal once the bait is gone. We now put up these baited camera stations out in the landscape as well. We're going to head over to these two trees right here and see what setup looks like. Mara, would you like to be on the camera side of things? 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:07:18] We're now standing between two trees, which are about five meters or roughly 15 feet apart. As we'll soon see, one tree will have a motion triggered camera on it, and the other tree will have a treat to attract an animal so their photograph can be taken. 

Mara Speck [00:07:33] I'm Mara Speck, and I'm part of the carnivore crew. Being on a project with endangered species is something that I've always wanted to do. So, it's very exciting. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:07:42] While Mara attaches the camera to a tree with a strap that wraps around the trunk, Brad shows us how the bait station is set up on a tree across the way, within the camera's view. 

Brad Smith [00:07:52] These surveys are going to be centered around a nice, juicy piece of chicken. It's going to pull in fishers, martens, foxes. We are putting it inside of a sock and the sock is going to get nailed up on the tree and that's what's going to hold on to this bait for us. So, all I'm doing here is taking some fencing staples and we're going to pound this chicken sock. 

[soundbite: hammering]

into our bait tree there. Critters with wrestle with it for a while get a lot of pictures taken. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:08:20] In addition to pictures, the crew also hopes to collect genetic information which can be obtained from hair samples. To give a bit of fisher fur, plastic strips called collars are nailed into the tree around the chicken sock and small wire brushes are inserted into sockets called t-nut within the strips. The wire brushes are tube shaped, with a diameter like a straw, and they're covered with small toothbrush like bristles on all sides. 

Brad Smith [00:08:47] If we want to get some genetic results we're doing, we'll also hang up wire gun brush collars that will collect hair samples for us. We take these little corrugated plastic strips that have threaded t-nuts inside of them. And all I'm doing is taking these three collars around the sides and the bottom to straddle the bait. A hungry critter comes dashing up the tree to get the bait. It'll rub its belly and it sides all over these brushes and leaves behind a hair sample for us. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:09:11] Statistical tests have revealed that these survey tools need to be left out in the forest for 28 days to reliably detect whether fishers are in the area. So the crew returns to the field after four weeks to gather their track plates -- the paper Brad showed us with the toner that captures the animal tracks -- the memory cards from the cameras and the wire brushes that hopefully have some fur on them. And while the wildlife crew spends a lot of their summer outdoors with boots on the ground, they also spend a lot of time organizing and analyzing the data they collect. Some of that is done here in the work center within their field office. 

Brad Smith [00:09:51] This is our office trailer. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:09:53] The atmosphere within is a blend of cozy cabin and laboratory. The wildlife crew members close together, reviewing photos that the motion detecting cameras took over the past month. There is friendly conversation, but also quiet computer clicks, indicating focused attention on data analysis. The screen work is an equally important part of conservation science and management. We lean into one screen to meet another crew member, Mikayla Barnett. 

Mikayla Barnett [00:10:19] Right now reviewing camera trap data. So, going through each photo that's been captured and trying to identify what, if anything, was captured within the photo so we can keep a record of what's all in the area. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:10:34] She shares her cheat sheet of creatures that are native to the area, which helps her identify animals within the photos. 

Mikayla Barnett [00:10:41] Our target species, so fisher and marten, and then we also some other smaller mammals, like fox, bobcats. Some smaller things like the possums, or ringtail. Couple squirrels, chipmunks. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:10:55] In addition to identifying the right species, the crew is also analyzing the photos to get the measurements of the photographed animal. If an animal were physically captured, the crew could take those measurements in person. So to enable this important piece of information to be obtained, the photographs alone, measuring sticks are set up at the camera survey stations. These simple pieces of wood with marks ten centimeters apart are placed near the chicken sock on the tree so that the photo will include both the animal that comes for the food and the measuring stick. From this, the crew can use a computer program to create a scale to calculate measurements of the animal. Ben Scott, another crew member, explains from his creaking office chair. 

Ben Scott [00:11:41] So we include those little measuring sticks at the bottom. And then this program is meant to let you make a scale. So, I'm just clicking a point first at the snout of the animal and this will just kind of give us a good estimate of the head size. And then...

Jamie Hinrichs [00:11:58] He continues to click on additional spots on the animal, which will allow the computer program to calculate additional measurements such as...

Ben Scott [00:12:06] Body length. And then, tail length, and that gives us an estimate for the animal. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:12:13] There is more up and coming technological aspects of this data to discuss, but first, we'll get a closer look at the track plates and hair samples. 

Brad Smith [00:12:21] This is what the tracks will look like when we pull them from the field. So here's one. We're at the exact same location, where we detected a fisher and a marten.

Jamie Hinrichs [00:12:30] Like fishers, martens are members of the weasel family. They often live at higher elevations than fishers, but they can also share the same habitat. So, wildlife specialists examine the shape and measure the parts of a track to identify which animal made the print. This tells them which animals are living in the habitat where they left the track box. And if the track plate is paired with a photograph of the animal, it increases the strength of a correct identification of the species. Brad tells us some of these things as he examines a track plate here in the work center. 

Brad Smith [00:13:03] So, you're mostly going to refer to your palm pad here in the center, and then your toe pads out in front of that. Negative space is really important. So, the space between the pads there, an animal that might spend more time in the snow like a marten is going to have more of that negative space because it has more fur. It's kind of like a snowshoe for them to go around on. Fishers are really good between like 3,000 and 7,000 thousand feet, but you get to much higher than that, and that's where the martens step in and are going to be your specialist to really thrive in that snow environment. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:13:28] But what about the fur samples collected from those wire brushes? That gets sent to a genetics lab at the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station. But before the fur is sent, steps are taken to preserve it and the genetic information it contains, and it comes in the form of some beads that have the power to keep things dry. 

[soundbite: beads clink together]

Brad Smith [00:13:49] One of the big enemies of genetics, while it's out in the field, is moisture. And so, as soon as we collect it, we try to get into a vial here with desiccant and then we'll make it back to the lab, with genetics still intact. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:14:01] The carnivore crew in this office trailer is also contributing to a bridge being built between endangered species conservation and artificial intelligence, which is often referred to as A.I. One organization external to the Forest Service is developing A.I. to analyze and share camera station photographs. Micah, the field coordinator for the crew, gives us a tour on her computer screen. 

Micah [00:14:25] We are taking A.I. and applying it to camera photos of different animal species. Last year, we generated more than a million photos. After we went through and removed the photos that were simply pictures of grass and branches waving in the wind, we had less than 200,000. So more than 80% of our photos are what we refer to as a false trigger. So not an actual animal there. 

With A.I., we wouldn't have to sit here and go through all of them and delete those photos, we would simply upload it to the website and then the model would run through all of them and tell us what we identified, how many we identified, and it would also identify which photos had more than one because family groups is also something we're very interested in. With fisher, one way of helping their population is to protect their denning sites or the areas in which they raise their families. So if we're able to capture a female and her kits or cubs on camera, then we can know that that area is very important as far as land protection goes. 

So right now, we still have a human going through each of these photos because the A.I. has to learn what we are looking for and we have plenty of photos to contribute to the training of the A.I. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:15:42] Micah scrolls through the collection of photographs the A.I. Has analyzed on her computer screen, reviewing the accuracy of the results. 

Micah [00:15:50] So the A.I. went through and I noticed that there was an animal here, so it put what it called a bounding box around it, and then it told us this is a gray fox, which it did correctly identify. Sometimes it will only go so far as to say that is a mammal. But this was able to get all the way down to species. It tells high level of confidence, but I'm 100% confident that that is a fox. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:16:12] While accurate that time, the A.I., as Micah said, is still learning, which is made evident when it identifies an animal unlikely to be found in the Sierra Nevada mountains. 

Micah [00:16:22] Nutria. I can tell you that that is the wrong thing the A.I. recognized, which is why we're still going through and grading them ourselves as well. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:16:30] Time for us to leae the crew to their photo review. So we head back outside with Brad to learn about another program in development outside the Forest Service, which is using artificial intelligence to analyze wildlife tracks. 

Brad Smith [00:16:42] The track plates that we get, the pieces of paper that had the footprints collected on them, we can scan those and with a ruler and send that off to this other organization that is hoping to come up with an app that people can use and take a photograph of a track that they might see on a trail. And through different ratios, measurements of the print, identify species, something as specific as male/female, or individual. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:17:06] In the case of both the photos and the track plates, the data and corrections that the crew provides can aid the development of artificial intelligence. In the future, that artificial intelligence may be able to aid the wildlife crew in the work that they are doing to monitor and protect endangered species. 

Brad Smith [00:17:23] We provide them with millions of photos and they need that so that they can train the models to detect photos of a fisher or another species that someone might be interested in. And then hopefully, with a few years of testing and proofing by human eyes, then we can trust it to do the photo processing for us. 

Jamie Hinrichs [00:17:38] The work that this and similar wildlife crews are doing points to the importance of using a variety of methods to enhance and further expand the effectiveness of endangered species conservation. And it has been fulfilling work for those who have been doing it for many years. 

Brad Smith [00:17:55] I love it. It's the best combination to me of getting in the field in an amazing environment like the Sierras, studying a species that I care a lot about, that I've been following for a long time. And firsthand seeing the drought kick in and tree mortality follow that up, and a lot of these hillsides turn from green to red to barren, it's kind of hard to watch and knowing the impact that it has on a species that was already isolated, already threatened by a host of concerns. I kind of feel that mission to go back out each summer to get the best data that we can and find ways to improve. 

[music starts: cello & piano]

Jamie Hinrichs [00:18:27] This episode was produced by me, Jamie Hinrichs. Theme music is from Pixabay. Keep your eyes and ears out for the next episode of Echoes from the Understory. 

[music ends]

Paul Wade [00:18:51] Hmm. I know it sounds tempting, but if you come across some chicken in a sock nailed to a tree, please leave it and stick to your granola bar. But smile for the camera. 

Our law enforcement and investigation teams have also documented how martens and fishers are being attracted to illegal marijuana grow site camps and dying from the poisonous chemicals they use to keep animals away from the crops and their food. A sad situation and the battle to keep these illegal trespassers out of public lands will continue and hopefully aid in keeping the population of wildlife high enough to avoid being listed. 

Thanks to Jamie, the monitoring crew and a digital shout out to A.I. What a way to use emerging technology. And as usual, for those that are curious. To learn more, go over to the show's description page and click on the links. Thanks for listening and if you're interested in sharing or listening to more episodes, search "Forest Focus Podcast" or look for us wherever you get your podcasts. And if you have questions or suggestions for a show, email us at sm.fs.r5ffpodcast@USDA.gov. 

Until next time, enjoy your public lands. Please remember to recreate responsibly know before you go and learn what you can do to prevent wildfires. Take care. 

This podcast is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. And the USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.