Published May 20, 2011, 11:00 AM
The DNR may update its plans for protecting a member of the weasel family known as the American marten.
By: Chuck Quirmbach, Wisconsin Public Radio, Superior Telegram
The DNR may update its plans for protecting a member of the weasel family known as the American marten.
The American marten is plentiful in Minnesota and Upper Michigan. But it's an endangered species in Wisconsin, living just in a few forested areas of the north. It remains a culturally significant species for some Native Americans, and to many, a barometer of the health of the forest ecosystem. The DNR has been using a marten recovery plan for about 25 years, and three projects have tried to boost the numbers of the mammal. DNR conservation biologist Jim Woodford says those reintroduction efforts have come up short.
Woodford says the DNR's new draft management plan calls for getting more accurate population estimates of the marten, protecting and improving marten habitat and enhancing the corridors that martens use to move. Still to be firmed up is how the logging companies and others in the forest products industry might be affected. Conservationist David Zaber of the Habitat Education Center says the DNR is pretty much on the right track. But he's hoping for stronger guarantees that the plan will be put in place.
The DNR will take comments on its marten management plan through July 5th. The plan may go the DNR Board later this year.