Pennsylvania: Reintroducing the American Marten to Pennsylvania

PA Game Commission tables plans to reintroduce American Marten

Anne Danahy - The Allegheny Front - February 22, 2024

The Pennsylvania Game Commission voted 6-3 on Jan. 27 to table plans to reintroduce the marten in Pennsylvania. The vote followed a lengthy study, development of a reintroduction and longterm management plan, and public input process. They received nearly 1,000 comments from the public, with 92% of the general public supporting the plan.

American Marten Reintroduction and Management Plan for Pennsylvania 2024-2033

Tom Keller - Pennsylvania Game Commission - 2023

This assessment determined through habitat suitability analyses that the state has

suitable habitat in quantity, quality, and connectivity. It also predicts minimal impacts would occur to species of concern and from other predators ... Past efforts

throughout North America to reintroduce marten in other regions are numerous (N=40) with the  majority ending in success. Justification provided within the assessment included ecological  restoration, arguments for increasing biodiversity, and cultural considerations for Indigenous peoples. Other points centered on the positive effect on the outdoor recreation economy, as demonstrated by other reintroductions, and Pennsylvania’s long-standing legacy of working to restore wildlife species and habitat through the generations. The assessment recommended the reintroduction of the marten to Pennsylvania.

Reintroducing the American Marten

Tom Keller - Pennsylvania Game Commission - 2023

The marten is one of the final missing pieces of our ecological community.  The marten plays a key role in seed dispersal and rodent population management within the forest system.  Restoring this community means creating a healthier forest, healthier environment, and in turn, a healthier us ... There are many reasons why now is the time to move forward with such an important effort - Available Resources (Staff, Funding, Infrastructure) - Available Technology (Modeling & Monitoring) - Strong Public and Partner Support - Need for Healthy Forests and Ecological Communities

American martens, last seen in the early 1900s, could be reintroduced in PA

Brian Whipkey - Go Erie - July 1, 2022

The Pennsylvania Game Commission is considering a reintroduction effort for the American marten ... Probably they were extirpated by the 1920s and even the 1930s following the deforestation that occurred in the state,” Tom Keller, furbearer biologist for the agency, said in a telephone interview. 

Keller believes it could take five years before a marten is actually released in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Keller said the historic data shows the marten’s core range at one time was in northcentral Pennsylvania in the area commonly referred to as the PA Wilds. Today he believes there is good habitat to reintroduce them. He said they need forest canopy in large tracts of land. They also like areas with significant snowfall as they spend time under the snow hunting, staying warm and avoiding other predators. 

W8banaki Nation and Missisquoi

‘A false narrative’: Abenaki leaders dispute the legitimacy of Vermont’s state-recognized tribes

Shaun Robinson - VTdigger - November 14, 2023

A Canadian tribe maintains that Vermont’s groups are not Indigenous and, instead, are appropriating their identity and culture. Research from leading scholars supports Odanak First Nation’s assertion, though the Vermont groups dispute it.

State Recognition and the Dangers of Race Shifting

Darryl Leroux -  American Indian Culture and Research Journal - 14 July 2023

...  I searched for available federal and state records, notably US census returns and State of Vermont vital records, for descendants of six of the most common ANM primary families ...  these six primary families account for just over 60 percent of the ANM’s 2005 membership. I identified 165 of these six families living in Vermont in 104 separate census and vital records between the 1830 US census for Swanton and a 2007 State of Vermont death certificate (see Appendix 2). In every archival document, these  individuals were only ever recorded as “White” (see Appendix 3). While descendants of these key ANM families were only ever recorded as white, Native American individuals were clearly recorded in every census in Vermont from 1860 to 1950, though none of them was related to the ANM’s main primary families ...  97.8 percent of their membership has no Abenaki ancestry.

Links: Raceshifting.com, W8banaki Nation

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Guide d'aménagement de systèmes agroforestiers

Guide d'aménagement de systèmes agroforestiers

Le Guide d’aménagement de systèmes agroforestiers vise à faciliter la conception et l’aménagement de systèmes agroforestiers qui soient à la fois harmonieux et efficaces au regard des bénéfices attendus. L’agroforesterie ou l’intégration de plantations d’arbres et d’arbustes dans l’environnement agricole, en association avec des cultures ou des élevages, procure de nombreux avantages, parmi lesquels la protection des sols, des cultures et des troupeaux, la protection de la qualité des cours d’eau, la biodiversité, l’atténuation des changements climatiques, l’attractivité des paysages, etc.