The American marten has been absent from Pennsylvania for more than 100 years, so when the Pennsylvania Game Commission announced it was hoping to reintroduce the animal to the Keystone State, there was a certain degree of enthusiasm among both the outdoors community and Pennsylvania residents as a whole.

That plan came to a halt late last month, however, when the agency’s Board of Commissioners voted 6 to 3 to table plans to move forward with reintroducing the animal.

A member of the weasel family, the American marten, also called the pine marten, is a slender animal that measures from 1.5 to just over 2 feet long from its head to the tip of its tail. The PGC notes martens typically weigh between 1 and 3 pounds, with males generally heavier than females. The animal is found across Canada, as well as the upper Midwest and the Eastern United States down into New York, New Hampshire and Vermont.

In the Keystone State, martens historically ranged across the Northern Tier, with the highest densities likely found in the northcentral part of the state. Due to deforestation and unregulated harvest in the 18th and 19th centuries, however, the animal was extirpated by the early 1920s.

Two years ago, the PGC did a feasibility study for the reintroduction of the marten, and followed that with its American Marten Reintroduction and Management Plan for Pennsylvania 2024-2033, designed to be a decade-long guide for reintroducing the animal in the state.

The plan, announced in early 2023, addressed issues such as historic and current forest conditions in the state, overall habitat suitability, public opinion and many other factors and considerations needed to ensure successful reintroduction.

In September 2023, the PGC officially released the plan for public comment, with nearly 1,000 people responding, the majority in favor of the reintroduction of martens. Public surveys that were conducted also showed that people were generally in favor of bringing the animal back to the state.

However, a hunter survey, which generated nearly 9,000 responses, found that 37% of respondents supported marten reintroductions, while 32% opposed it and 31% were neutral. The commissioners noted the results seemed highly unusual, leading them to recommend the PGC staff do further “work” with hunters before moving forward.

“The unusual thing about the survey was that nearly a third of respondents were neutral,” said PGC Communications Director Travis Lau. “This was a survey of PA hunters, a group that typically doesn’t ride the fence. So, for so many to respond as neutral, I think that raised some questions whether something else was behind that answer such as respondents being unfamiliar with this proposal or with martens in general.

“They were a couple other reasons cited for tabling. Some expressed concerns martens might not have ideal conditions in PA — particularly lack of snow cover — and that they might be vulnerable to predation.”

Bob Schwalm, the PGC commissioner for District 9 and the Lehigh Valley region, was one of the board members who supported tabling the plan. Schwalm noted he is concerned about the state’s current climate and how the forests have changed since martens disappeared from the Commonwealth. He requested the agency spend more time exploring whether the reintroduction would truly be worth the investment or simply set the animals up to disappear again.

Schwalm told lehighvalleylive.com that he is not at all opposed to reintroducing an animal that was extirpated.

“I believe that every creature is vital to a healthy ecosystem and that we owe this to our future generations, if it is feasible, to put back what has been lost,” Schwalm said.

If the PGC was to reintroduce martens, it would look to do so in areas that would have large and well-connected tracts of high-quality, mixed-forest habitat that martens would need to survive. The core area would be the north-central part of the state, with other potential release sites identified in the both the northeastern and northwestern parts of the state. The PGC estimated at least 300 of the animals would need to be brought into the state to ensure the population had the best chance to re-establish itself in the designated release areas.

The PGC’s marten reintroduction plan notes that the American marten may be one of the most frequently translocated furbearing species in North America, with 52 translocations done over the years. Of those, 40 were reintroductions, while 12 were augmentations to existing populations or supplements to initial reintroductions.

According to Schwalm, his goal is to be certain that martens will have a fighting chance to survive in the Commonwealth.

“Our winter climate has changed over the past 100 years,” Schwalm said. “Snowfall has been replaced with rain. During the winter months it is vital for martens to have sufficient snowpack — (the) subnivean zone, the environment beneath the snow. This provides protection from a growing predator population such as fishers, bobcats and coyotes, just to mention a few.

“Snowpack is also needed for thermal protection. The marten is a very small mammal, approximately 18 inches long, that weighs 2 pounds. They aren’t capable of wearing a heavy fur coat during the winter months.”

As for next steps, the Board of Commissioners did not set a deadline for when it would like to hear from staff again. According to Lau, several commissioners cited the need for continued education about the reintroduction proposal, so there will be more outreach to explain the initiative. Some of the commissioners also expressed a desire to further flesh out hunter opinions, especially what’s behind the substantial neutral response shown in the survey.

“I did overhear at least one commissioner ask (PGC Furbearer Biologist) Tom Keller to make his (marten reintroduction) presentation somewhere in their district,” Lau said. “So, things seem to be moving along in about the same manner as before the vote to table.”