Natural History Wanderings

A team of researchers from the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon State University have found that the American marten is becoming more difficult to find in the Sierra Nevada.  Marten detection declined 60 percent since the 1980s, which they believe is due to habitat loss.  The researchers found a 25 per cent loss of habitat and that the existing populations are becoming more fragmented.

The study suggested 3 strategies for land management strategies in the report to improve martin habitat:

• First, managers should consider retaining the remaining contiguous large patches of pre- dicted marten reproductive habitat, both in the lower water- shed near riparian corridors and in the true fir-dominated stands in the upper watershed.
• Second, corridors of dense, late-seral forest should be retained among thinned areas to reduce distances between patches of closed canopy forest and facilitate movement of martens and other cover-dependent species among patches.
• Lastly we suggest that managers strive for a silvicultural paradigm that retains large snags, diverse tree structure, large downed woody material, and patches of decadent trees as potential resting and denning habitat for martens

Read more at YubaNet Fewer Marten Detections in California Forest Linked to Decline in Habitat.

and see the study at The Journal of Wildlife Management Decline in American Marten Occupancy Rates at Sagehen Experimental Forest, California