What are your guys thoughts on the reintroduction of marten here in pa ?

Good idea for the PGC- gives them another Permit to sell. Bad idea for Turkeys,Grouse and other ground nesters - gives them another predator to deal with.

Mistake.... Last thing we need is another predator.

Fisher would push them right out! it's already happened in central Maine where I trap. Fisher are a much hardier animal!

Where's the suitable, large, contiguous, non-fragmented habitat located
that PGC hopes to use to jump start an American Marten introduction scheme ?

Be prepared for a chit-ton of restrictive body-grip regulations to
protect transplanted Marten brood stock until this pipe dream succeeds and/or fails.

My take is the PGC biologists that are contemplating this fantasy
need to lay off the crack pipe !!!

walleyed

No worries there, we already have restrictive body grip regulations.

Our fathers and grandfathers and many of us understand that to maintain a thriving population of game animals you need to eliminate the predators. And they did. I have no clue why various government agencies are (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman)-bent on re-introducing them.

I like the idea.

What’s next, mountain lions?

Well, since you brought it up….

https://www.phillyvoice.com/cougars...r-vehicle-collisions-population-control/

Wouldn’t be surprised

I agree with Walleyed. This is just another brain fart to give the biologist a not needed project. A lot of Pennsylvania is unsuited habitat for martens. I heard the biologist's pitch at Minktoberfest. The Game Commission should be spending their time and efforts to addressing existing problems with wildlife, not creating new ones. We saw in New York years ago the Canadian Lynx reintroduction project by a college professor and his grad student. Lots of money wasted and project was a failure. Thank God or we would be facing the same problems as the Maine trappers.
Also. New York's DEC spent a lot of effort in radio collaring marten. which are a species limited to a small area of the Adirondacks. At the same time they dropped the ball on the decline in fisher. Results: one wildlife manager got an advanced degree, more restrictive conibear regulations were put in place (many in areas where marten do not exist), and the trappers got screwed. In all of that what truly was accomplished???
We had the otter restoration in western New York. That was decades ago. Where is the open trapping season? I"m just trying to point out that some of these brainstorms are not what they are cracked up to be.
As a New York member of the Pennsylvania Trappers Assn.I say this is a bad idea.

There is always an impact with introductions. Particularly if the specie finds suitable habitat and propagates well.. Man doesn't really know what these outcomes will be and when it goes bad it can be hard to re balance the scale once again. We still don't know what the fisher population impact will have.

Our local turkey numbers have seen a decline over the last few years. I use to see local broods come through our place every spring and summer. Each time they come thru there are a few missing each visit. Hard to say what picked them off.

However, when they are on the roost, a predator rich environment is going to win most of those encounters. Our hawk and Owl populations are very strong in these parts also. I find rabbit fur weekly in our grassy areas so most of those are Hawks / Owls I would say.

We never had many fisher in my part of the state however they are populating well and expanding their range. Seeing them/tracks and hearing of several road kills now so they are doing well.

Over all I don't think the Keystone State needs a marten introduction program. Some may migrate here over time, so beit, but that is how it should be in this case.

Understand this about the Pa. game Comm.,THEY DONT CARE ABOUT THE HUNTERS OF PA AND ESPECIALLY TRAPPERS. All they care about is the mighty dollar and the clout. Look at your game laws and especially trapping regs. Look at the grouse situation, they have ignored it for so long we will never come close to having the grouse numbers like we did and I blame the pgc. for ignoring the problem for to long. But introducing martin wont hurt small game numbers, yhea right ,like I believe the game commission. Idiots.

[quote=Furback]Good idea for the PGC- gives them another Permit to sell.



This much would certainly be behind it. All these agencies are businesses also

I’ve said for years that they should change there name from game commission to people commission. All the do is manage the masses. Extra opportunities for people and nothing for the game. So many seasons and so many tags to make the people happy and the game populations suffer. It’s a joke

X2

There go your Turkeys!!!

Fine with me. If they were here at one time, they can be here now.

It would be nice to see a biologist some where put aside their personal agendas and do the work it would take to get to the cause of the nation wide Muskrat decline. I guess they are just not the cash cows that Lynx or in this case Marten are. I also find it interesting that many here voice concern for turkeys which in PA. were reintroduced largely at the expense of Ruffed grouse.