A Ghost of the Forest Returns
Wildlife researchers have confirmed the first documented sighting of an American marten in Ohio in more than 150 years. Trail cameras positioned in a forested area of the state captured images of the small, elusive carnivore, a weasel-family member that was extirpated from Ohio during the widespread deforestation of the 19th century.
The American marten, Martes americana, is a cat-sized predator that inhabits mature forests across the northern United States and Canada. About the size of a small house cat, with rich brown fur, a pale chest patch, and a bushy tail, the marten is an agile hunter that pursues squirrels through tree canopies and hunts voles and other small mammals on the forest floor.
Why Martens Disappeared
Ohio's forests were nearly completely cleared during the 1800s as European settlers converted land for agriculture and harvested timber for construction and fuel. By the late 19th century, less than 10 percent of Ohio's original forest cover remained. For the American marten, which depends on large tracts of mature forest with complex canopy structure and abundant den sites in hollow trees and fallen logs, this habitat destruction was catastrophic.
The marten's disappearance from Ohio was part of a broader range contraction across the eastern United States. Once found throughout the northern forests from New England to the Great Lakes and southward through the Appalachian Mountains, the species was pushed back to remnant populations in a few northern states and the mountains of the Northeast.
Unregulated trapping for the fur trade accelerated the decline. Marten pelts were highly valued, and the species' curious nature made it relatively easy to trap. The combination of habitat loss and overtrapping eliminated martens from most of their historical range in the eastern United States by the early 20th century.
