Not only is the Fisher back throughout New England, but it's smaller "weasel-relative", the American Marten is also making a comeback...........A denizen of the Vermont woods up until the 1940's, Martens "blinked out" as we cut down their Forest cover.............With forest recovery occurring over the past 100 years(Vermont now at 75% forest land cover), 115 Maine and New York Martens were reintroduced into the southern Green Mountains around 1990..............While it was uncertain if these "frontiersmen" had bred successfully, the mountain loving Martens recolonized on their own in the Northeast Kingdom section of the state(Martens migrating in from Maine)...........And lo and behold, those transplanted 1990 Maine and NY Martens did in fact have offspring resulting in a current southern Green Mountains colony of Marten...............Although the larger sized Fisher and the smaller Marten both compete for red squirrels in the treetops(climbers, both are), Martens thrive and live underneath deep snow cover(known as subnivean mammals) preying on whatever they can find there, such as moles or mice..........With warming temperatures, Marten could be challenged in the years ahead as snowfall becomes less certain in the Winter

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IN THIS STATE(Vermont): THE 

MARTEN MAKES A COMEBACK, 

AND CHRIS BERNIER IS HOT ON 

ITS TAIL

April 2014

The American Marten

Red Sox slugger “Big Papi” (aka David Ortiz) may have
 his selfie with President Obama, but Chris Bernier has
got photos he thinks are even better – and he’s not even
 in them.

They’re pictures of martens, weasel-like animals long considered extirpated from the deep forests of Vermont. A member of the mustelid family, which includes weasels, fisher, ermine and mink, the last
confirmed sightings of a wild American marten
(formerly pine marten) had been in the 1940s.

Despite an effort to reintroduce them between 1989 and
 1991, they’ve long been considered a “phantom emblem”
 of the boreal forest, in the poetic words of former state
 naturalist Charles Johnson, in his book “The Nature of
Vermont.”

But the phantom, it appears, is back, and no one is
 happier than Bernier, who oversees the state’s
 population of fur-bearing mammals for the Vermont
 Department of Fish & Wildlife.

“It’s an exciting one to work on,” says Bernier, adding
that even this day that he is talking about his job and
 the evidence for martens, he’s had two calls about
 potential sightings.

The larger of the two weasels, THE FISHER

The little cousin of the Fisher, The American Marten

Size and Weight. The fisher is the largest member
 of the genus Marfes. " 
Adult males generally weigh 3.5-5.5 kg, though larger
 males are not un- 
common in parts of the species' range.  Females
 generally weigh 2.0-2.5 kg. 
95 cm . Although martens vary considerably in size 
across 
their range, they are nowhere as large as fishers. Like 
fishers, male martens are larger than females; males
 generally weigh 
0.6-1.0 kg, but can be up to 1.4 kg, whereas females
 generally weigh 
0.4-0.7 kg, but can be up to 1 kg (Buskirk and 
McDonald 1989). Males 
generally are 50-70 cm in total length, whereas 
females are 45-60 cm

While his scientific background (a degree in wildlife
management from the University of Maine), doesn’t
 lend itself to flat declarations, he says he is “cautiously
 optimistic” that the house-cat sized omnivores have
 returned to their rightful place in Vermont’s deep
 forests, with reproducing populations now in both
the Northeast Kingdom and southern Green Mountains.

Bernier works in the Springfield office of the Fish &
Wildlife Department and has the title of “Fur Bearer
 Project Leader,” a post he’s spent 20 years working
 up to. His job is varied, to say the least, in keeping
 with the varied nature of his furry wards, which
 range “from the weasel up to the mountain lion,”
he explains – 17 animals in all.

Chris Bernier holds a weeks-old bear cub to keep it warm
 while the radio collar on the cub’s mother is being changed.
 Bernier, who oversees management of 17 fur-bearing 
Vermont animals for the Fish & Wildlife Department,
 recently announced that the long-vanished American 
marten appears to be back and reproducing in Vermont.
 Photo courtesy Chris Bernier

He’s seen them all except the mountain lion,
wolf and lynx, which is slightly larger than the
bobcat and is rare but does exist in a small
 population in the Northeast Kingdom.

“Winter is my busy time of the year, field-wise,”
 he explains. On any given week. Bernier can
be out tracking lynx or marten, assessing
 habitat, checking bear dens, or writing reports
 in his cluttered office.

You could add that he’s never met a pelt he
didn’t like – pelts and knowledgeable trappers
 being a source of valuable information. Another
 part of his job makes him a wildlife version of
 CSI, which recently put him in the basement
 of a lab at the Roxbury Fish Hatchery, where
 he was performing necropsies on the frozen
carcasses of around 130 (no-longer-fur-bearing)
 animals legally harvested by trappers, primarily
 fisher, bobcat and otter. (Martens remain a
state endangered species and are not trapped).

While it sounds like a gruesome assembly line,
Bernier said the occasion drew experts from
 adjoining states for the “incredible information”
 they can get about wildlife in the region, from
 general health, sex, age and vitality of the
 animals to any diseases, parasites and whether
 there is evidence of heavy-metal concentration
 in the animals.

Bernier is one of those rare individuals who
 even as a child knew his likely career
 destination. “It was really the only choice;
this is what I was going to do,” he says.

He credits his natural surroundings as a
 key influence. He grew up in West Gardiner,
 Maine, living close to the Cobbosseecontee
 Stream, which flows into the mighty
 Kennebec River. He spent endless hours
 in woods and on water, stashing a canoe
by a beaver impoundment to paddle through
 twilight, observing beaver, mink, otter and
other mammals.

“I spent all my free time in the woods,”
he says. “I’ve been dabbling at this stuff
literally since high school.”

Chris Bernier is shown setting out a game camera

 in the Glastonbury Wilderness Area of the

 Green Mountain National Forest in southern 

Vermont. Using the cameras, he confirmed

 that Vermont appears to have a wild

 reproducing population of American martens, 

which were extirpated in the 1940s. Photo by

 Scott Wixsom, U.S. Forest Service

After receiving his college degree, he
 worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, and then later as a private
consultant, as an environmental educator
and finally as a wildlife biologist for the
 state of Vermont.

The tale of the marten, Bernier explains, is
one intertwined with history, habitat, predators
and population.

Martens are creatures of the deep forest,
 smaller than their cousin, the fisher. The
 fisher is a ferocious predator from the same
 family and fishers were successfully
 reintroduced in the late 1950s and 1960s
to control porcupines.

Martens measure some 18-26 inches long
 (males are larger and a third of their size is tail)
and the habitat of the curious but solitary
 predator largely vanished in the deforestation
of the mid-1800s.

The regrowth of Vermont to roughly 75 percent
forest opened a window for martens to find
 suitable upland mountain habitat, which is
 what they prefer, Bernier explains. More
than two decades ago, the state, along with
 the national forest and partners in Maine
 and New York, released 115 ear-tagged
 martens in southern Vermont in places
such as Mount Holly and Wallingford to try
 and re-establish the population in the
 southern Green Mountains.

For five years afterwards, a Fish &
Wildlife worker set up 50 baited cameras
 to try to ascertain if the population was
viable. “There were no pictures of martens,”
said Bernier – but they got 85 pictures of
fishers, which are “direct competitors for
 resources and a direct predator.” That led
 experts to consider the reintroduction a failure.

But starting in early 2000, Bernier explains,
 the department started receiving reports of
sightings of martens in southern Vermont.
 “They’re very distinctive if you know what
you’re looking for,” he says, and sightings
were also reported in the Northeast Kingdom,
where a reintroduction was not attempted
 because biologists figured the area would
 recolonize on its own.

“That is, in fact, what happened,” he says.
Meanwhile down south, he guesses, a few
of the reintroduced martens did survive to
provide a new population.

“(Last winter) within weeks of putting out
 four cameras, we had pictures of two
different martens.” And sightings and tracks
 discovered by trappers out for fisher further
confirmed the state had two distinct expanding
 marten populations.

Unlike much larger fishers, martens thrive and
 live underneath deep snow cover –
 the term is subnivean – preying on whatever
 they can find there, such as moles or mice.
Martens are supremely well adjusted to deep
snow such as Vermont has had this year, but
 may be at a disadvantage in low-snow years,
he says.

“The southern Green Mountains are perfect
 marten habitat in the high elevations,” notes
Bernier.

Martens, even more than fishers, are remarkable
 and nimble climbers, a trait they share with a
favorite prey, red squirrels, which they will
chase across tree tops.

Bernier is now turning his attention to mapping
the extent of their spread.

“We’re essentially trying to get a handle on their
 distribution. That’s our primary goal for now,”
 he says, along with studying their habitat conditions.

For Bernier, the marten success story is sort of
an antidote to his most prominent media role,
which is as catchall for catamount sightings and
 pictures. He spends a lot of time following up
 and mostly debunking them, finding everything
 from mountain lion pictures from other states
 to mistaken identity.

“We don’t have a reproducing population but
we potentially have some passing through,”
he says. “You would not believe the degree
 to which people are hoaxing the system.”

A marten with a radio collar descends a tree in this 
photo taken by the New York Department of
 Environmental Conservation. Martens are excelle
nt climbers, like their larger relative the fisher.