AN ODE TO MARTEN

When asked to name their favorite animal to trap, a short list of species get the nod from most trappers. Usually it’s the coyote or otter, sometimes the wolf or bobcat. Why? Well, a critter usually rises to the top of the list because it presents a challenge. It’s difficult to catch, cunning, crafty, and perhaps a little unpredictable.

That’s not the case for my favorite species. The marten isn’t difficult to catch. In fact, the real challenge is usually just finding marten. Once you’re into them, marten are easy to catch. They’re not trap shy, they are readily attracted to a variety of baits and lures, and their habits are quite reliable and predictable.

The marten is my favorite animal to trap not due to its individual merits, but because of what the marten represents. Marten live in wild places. They require old growth, diverse, healthy forests with minimum human impact. They live in cold climates that get plenty of snow – harsh places that man rarely inhabits. In short, marten habitat represents the places that attract me most to the outdoors.

The first animal I caught while trapping was a marten. I set a bodygrip trap at an entrance to a den-like cavity at the base of a partly uprooted cedar tree after tossing a chunk of meat inside. I set ten or twelve others like it in likely places, but this one was special. The next day I found a marten there, having quickly expired in the trap while entering the night before.

My second year trapping was the first I encountered a live marten in a trap. It was early canine season and a marten had found its way into a foothold trap I’d set for coyotes. The pelt wasn’t yet in its winter prime, and by law I had to release the marten. Weighing only a pound or two, this little ball of fur unleashed a fury on me. It hissed, growled, snarled and did everything possible to express its displeasure at my intrusion. I released it from the trap and it immediately climbed the nearest tree, only to look down on me and continue to display its annoyance at my presence.

Before I became a trapper, I knew little to nothing about marten. I’d grown up with them literally living in my backyard, but these small nocturnal forest dwellers were rarely seen by hunters and only occasionally mentioned. Trapping changed things. I learned what marten were, where they lived and what they ate. I learned about their habitat requirements, the predators that threatened them and the prey they pursued. I learned how to entice them to a set, and how to catch and hold them in a trap. And over time, I formed a deep connection to marten as a species, and developed a strong desire to see marten habitat protected and enhanced in the face of dramatic changes in forest management in parts of its range.

Marten have become part of my identity as a trapper. The way I think about trapping, the way I look at the woods, and the way I gauge success and failure……all these things are at least partly rooted in the way I see marten as a species. So small, so simple, but so fierce and defiant. The scrappy underdog that’s a little too stubborn to ask for help. That’s the way I see marten. And that’s partly why I love ‘em. 