So this winter I've been trying to chase fisher but recently caught a marten in a box I set out for fisher. Now, I have never know my area to hold marten.. The area consists of mostly fields and Prairie land with deciduous valleys and ridges. I'm about 70-80 miles from the nearest edge of boreal forest, and have always thought that marten prefer heavy cover (coniferous forest). Are marten able to adapt to different environments? There is a good food source of red squirrels and a fair amount of snowshoes (only in the valleys). I'm not expecting to catch more, but how often do you hear of marten moving through or living in more open areas? For this marten to get here he would have had to trek across multiple open meadows and fields that are 1/4 to 1/2 mile long. To say the least I was shocked, never heard of one being caught here.

That's a 160 belisle for size reference, I believe it's larger than average but it is a male.

Some of the most productive marten lines I know of sit at higher elevations. Where I'm at anywhere between 3000 and 4000 feet is usually best. These areas are typically more open environments. There are trees, but its alpine type country. I trapped for many years up above treeline, ( think no trees in sight in many areas) and caught lots of marten. While Im sure marten do eat red squirrels occasionally, they are not a primary food source for them.

In Interior Alaska, marten go where the voles are. Often there are plenty of yellow-back voles in the large open areas that support grasses and sedges. The yellow backs mean "more vole calories per kill...!" They are much larger than the more common red back voles.

Your marten habitat looks as tough to get through as my marten habitat.

By definition, I'm not sure I trap a boreal forest.

How about your snowshoe hare population? Martens can prey a lot on them, especially the bigger males.

I've never noticed a decent population of snowshoe hares, this year there seems to be more than other years. Lots of mice and shrews though. What is the typical food source for marten? I know very little about them due to never targeting them. Next time I'm out there I'll take some pics of the area. Mostly oak and poplar. Must've been an oak marten lol.

Sort of depends on what is available locally. But GENERALLY, they prefer red back voles, yellow cheeked voles, jumping mice etc. They will eat shrews too but not if they have a choice of something better. As others have said...they will take a red squirrel but not their preferred meal.

One of the areas I guide hunters in has an incredible bog lemming population. Lots of houses were over 3 feet high, and they were everywhere. One fall it snowed while I was there, I have never seen marten sign like I did in that area. I can only assume they were feeding on the lemmings as there wasn't much else there.

The common factor in the areas we've trapped are lots of tipped over timber, both in over-mature forest and burns. It looks as though your area may fit in with that characteristic. Of course, voles and lemmings to eat too. Older males tend to wander more, as well.

For a small animal a marten can cover a lot of ground fairly quickly.One juvenile was collared in NW Ontario in fall and was caught 6 weeks later in Manitoba 120 km away.

What 3006 said in my area ,Engelmann spruce creek bottoms big Lodgepole and Spruce tipped over ,no grass.

What 3006 said in my area ,Engelmann spruce creek bottoms big Lodgepole and Spruce tipped over ,no grass.

Weird animals, to be sure. I trap two different lines. One has big, boggy Meadows and second growth hemlock. No spruce at all,. I get Marten on the fring of the bogs and hemlock.
The other line is old growth spruce and beach fring. They seem to make a living in both environment's, though the two couldn't be more different.

I like that beach fring !!!

The e is silent. Almost like those fancy French words, only different.

Pmbnatrpr, I am in the southern boreal forest of Ontario and do a lot of trapping on private land on a clay belt. The belt is about 95% farmed and the pockets of forest are loaded with marten. Most of the pockets are poplar forests near a pond or stream. Usually they are completely surrounded by large fields. Not sure how the marten got there?
I cannot trap these marten because I don’t have enough private land. I think here you get a quota of 1 marten per 1000 acres of private land.

On my trapline in the cut areas of the last 15 years there are no marten in the forested pockets left.

There does seem to be a lot of rabbits and mice near the farmed areas so I can only assume it has to do with the food availability and competition.

Remember that this trapper lives really close to Miami,
and there are always lots of girls on the beach ridges...

You are between two breeding marten populations only 50 miles apart so they can be expected.

One marten specimen last year had 24 Sorex cinerous or masked shrew in it's stomach that I caught.

I think he may be closer to Maui than Miami but your point is still valid !

White he is only 6 miles away from Miami and he is on a beach ridge....a few years old from Lake Aggaszi but still a beach ridge.

The point is it is a travel corridor especially for marten. Look at some of the ridges around Hudson Bay. Some of those trappers that are luck when they are set up right do well over a 100 marten a short 3 week season. Boco are you near any of those ridges.
That marten with the tracking collar went 1000 km and ended up on the GRADING table in Manitoba ( it was caught in Kenora area) and that was a big movement year

Not much for ridges here,except for the eskers and moraines from glaciation.The odd outcrop of shield rock but not much,mostly lowland black spruce/tamarack swamp with jackpine on the higher glacial features and large white spruce along the well drained ground along the big rivers.