Timber harvest jeopardize marten persistence in the heart of its range

Abstract

Over the last decades, timber harvest has greatly reduced the quality of habitat for several species. To mitigate this problem, government authorities often try to support silvicultural practices that help forests recover faster to a natural state while supporting the economic development of forestry. The American marten is a carnivore species that is sensitive to forest disturbances, which is one of the main factors limiting its populations. For several years, trappers have warned that logging reduced the abundance of marten in several areas at the heart of its distribution. We used forest inventories and trapping effort on traplines collected by the Quebec government since 1970 to assess the relationship between habitat quality, capture success of marten and weather over a 25 years span in Quebec. Our results showed that the abundance of marten decreased, following the proportion of good quality habitat since 1990. Furthermore, we observed an increase in capture success with the amount of snowfall suggesting that marten are more numerous in habitats where snow is abundant as it gives them a competitive advantage over sympatric mesocarnivores such as fishers. Consequently, as climate models forecast less snow in the future, the negative effect of logging could be amplified for this species. Forest planning should consider marten needs and improve the quality and connectivity of habitats to ensure the persistence of the American marten with changing climate.