I suspect there's not enough old growth forest for them to thrive.

It would be interesting to know if fisher are hard on marten

I don't believe I've ever caught a marten in old growth. Now I've caught some in 100 year old second growth, but it has been logged so not true old growth. Majority of the marten I catch are in 25-50 year old timber. Of course I've also never caught a marten in hardwoods, because other than tag alder we don't really have them. But that is what I see the majority of them trapped in back east.

I talked to an older gentleman and he caught numerous Stone Marten in SE Wisconsin in Kettle Moraine State Forest, I think he said early 80's. I believe they were released from a farm, bred and thrived for a short time period; some say they exist today.

Squash,
Thanks for the input. When I left NYS and the Mohawk Valley 19 years ago (lived about 2 miles from the fairgrounds as the crow flies) there were no fisher sightings. Since then they seem to be all over.
Geographically for everyone else, the Mohawk Valley is a long way from good Adirondack marten habitat. But fisher were only about a 45 minute drive north. However, the Mohawk River a Barge Canal need to be crossed to get there.

Yes. I had a friend see a stone marten in west central Wi ~8 years ago

Cool Animals to trap.

If our marten re- intro is failing due to our lack of large blocks of mature old growth woodlands, I guess I will take that. If we want way more marten that may mean far fewer, deer, grouse, other small game and maybe even beaver as we will have far fewer areas of early succession growth like aspen, birch and alder. I will take the latter for preferred species. On the negative side, due to millions of private forest acres not being harvested and lower stumpage value even less in our public lands we are getting more mature forests which is detrimental to most species we value and the blocks are not large enough for marten to expand. Sort of a lose lose if you ask me.

Bryce

I guess when I refer to old growth it doesn't necessarily just apply to the age of the trees. It's more of a forest type; generally a mixed age stand, snags, downed woody debris (root-wads, windfall, etc.), and understory. Old growth forests generally have the right mix, along with moisture.

I'm curious what the tree species are where you are finding marten in healthy numbers, also I'd guess maybe mostly in darker valleys, and on north facing slopes rather than drier south facing slopes?

I've seen areas in the panhandle of Idaho where I wouldn't expect to find marten, but then in the same general area I've seen dark, damp valleys and draws with hemlock and devils club almost reminiscent of SE Alaska and the western Cascade mountains of Washington.

I have my doubts that a lack of large blocks of old growth is the reason for the failure there Bryce. So many other things can impact an effort like this.
There are guys up here in SE Alaska who trap islands where both deer and marten are fairly dense. I suspect that the high fat/protein available at or near the tide line has a big influence there.

When we have forest fires here they can cover many miles because no suppression is used. They just burn...sometimes for months. Those burned areas often produce good marten populations 2-5 years later. Especially around the edges of the burn when there is available cover/concealment nearby in the unburned perimeter. The new shoots in the burned areas produce bumper crops of voles and downed trees . Great spots for a marten to hunt.

If there is trapping allowed near where a reintroduction has been tried then I suspect that might have a detrimental affect. Marten can wander especially if they are short on prey in the home range. Perhaps.....just throwing this out there........the reintroduction area doesn't get enough snow when your temperatures get low. Marten need a very high quantity of calories relative to their body size/weight and living under the snow when it is cold helps them conserve heat. Also, they are living at the same level as their prey if they are eating voles and shrews. That saves them energy by not needing to travel as far to hunt.

It's an interesting conundrum for sure. Quite a complex set of variables, probably the single most important of which is food. Without adequate calories all the old growth in the world isn't going to save them.

I’ve talked to a tribal game manager that was involved in marten research over the years and he said predation by fishers was a big reason marten wernt taking off. Bobcat predation has drastically reduced our fishers which the DNR seems to be clueless about so maybe martens would fare better now unless this huge cat population preys on marten as well. It’s insane how long it takes to get a late season cat tag. Especially when right across the boarder Minnesota has 5 a year limit and still there cat population wen up right along with ours.