Paige Fisher - vtdigger - August 18, 2023
Elusive, beady-eyed and adorable, the American marten, colloquially known as a pine marten, has a long, tumultuous history. After being practically wiped from Vermont’s landscape in the 1800s, reintroduced in the 1990s and disappearing again, these mammals now scurry among the Green Mountains, intriguing and puzzling researchers. Martens are medium-sized carnivorous animals in the weasel family. In direct competition with fishers, they mostly snack on small mammals like red squirrels. But, if enticed by denser calories, they can take down something as large as a snowshoe hare, said Jill Kilborn, biologist for New Hampshire Fish and Game ... The Endangered Species Act was legislated in 1973 and martens were listed as endangered in Vermont and New Hampshire, said Paul Hapeman, a specialist in small carnivore conservation at Central Connecticut State University. Because Vermont is the southernmost region of marten territory, there’s a good chance the martens that reside in the north are from neighboring states or Canada. And in southern Vermont, there’s a good chance they came from the reintroduction 30 years ago. And sightings of the mammals in the middle area of the state remain a puzzle, he said. His team is working to unravel the mystery by looking at the populations’ genetics, Hapeman said. Depending on those results, that initial reintroduction effort could be a huge victory for conservationists.
Mikaela Lefrak, Daniela Fierro - Vermont Public Radio - December 18, 2023
Researchers have identified two distinct marten populations in the state—one in the Northeast Kingdom and another in southern Vermont. Brehan Furfey, a wildlife biologist and the furbearer project leader for the state, explains what makes the marten special.
Aylward, Murdoch, Kilpatrick - Nature - 28 Jan 2020
American marten (Martes americana) are a conservation priority in many forested regions of North America. Populations are fragmented at the southern edge of their distribution due to suboptimal habitat conditions. Facilitating gene flow may improve population resilience through genetic and demographic rescue ... circuit theory was used to identify potential movement corridors
Archive
WCAX-3 - Mar. 30, 2021
Vermont Fish and Wildlife continues its work to bring back the American Marten population in Vermont, an endangered species in the state.
Todd McLeish - Northern Woodlands - January 5th, 2021
Several studies by a former graduate student at the University of Vermont have concluded that the best bet for rebuilding marten populations is to ensure that corridors of high-quality habitat are available to allow martens to disperse and reduce inbreeding threats.
Chris Albertine - Vermont Public Radio - April 3, 2019
The American Marten is about the size of a mink with a long body, short legs and a thick, furry coat. They can be brownish or reddish in color and have a buffy patch of fur around their throat. They are quite cute, with pronounced eyebrows that give them a quizzical look. Deforestation and hunting brought the marten close to local extinction by 1900. In the late 1980's, the marten was re-introduced into Vermont forests.
C.M. Aylward et al - Animal Conservation - 2018
The final model included effects of five covariates at the 5‐km scale: percent canopy cover (positive), percent spruce‐fir land cover (positive), winter temperature (negative), elevation (positive) and road density (negative) ... We mapped distribution across the region and used circuit theory to estimate movement corridors between isolated core populations.
Links: Data page
Murdoch, Kilpatrick, Bernier - Northeastern States Research Cooperative - 2015
In recent years, martens have been slowly recolonizing far northern and southern Vermont. A primary concern is how best to prioritize areas for conservation that facilitate the species’ recovery. Martens generally require movement corridors and large expanses of forest habitat.
Andrew Nemethy - vtdigger - April 20, 2014
Despite an effort to reintroduce them between 1989 and 1991, they’ve long been considered a “phantom emblem” of the boreal forest, in the poetic words of former state naturalist Charles Johnson, in his book “The Nature of Vermont.” Martens are creatures of the deep forest, smaller than their cousin, the fisher. The fisher is a ferocious predator from the same family and fishers were successfully reintroduced in the late 1950s and 1960s to control porcupines ... starting in early 2000, Bernier explains, the department started receiving reports of sightings of martens in southern Vermont. “They’re very distinctive if you know what you’re looking for,” ... Martens, even more than fishers, are remarkable and nimble climbers, a trait they share with a favorite prey, red squirrels, which they will chase across tree tops ... Unlike much larger fishers, martens thrive and live underneath deep snow cover – the term is subnivean – preying on whatever they can find there, such as moles or mice. Martens are supremely well adjusted to deep snow such as Vermont has had this year, but may be at a disadvantage in low-snow years, he says.
Jane Lindholm - Vermont Public Radio - March 19, 2014
Chris Bernier is the furbearer project leader for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. He spoke with Vermont Edition about the jump in the marten's numbers.
