Join us on Zoom for a virtual webinar to learn more about the threatened marten and its Oregon habitat.
To request the webinar zoom link, register and sign up for the event through Oregon Sierra Club’s website.
The Coastal or Humboldt Marten was considered extinct until this tiny mammal was found in Northern California in 1990. While it once occupied more of central Oregon, coastal forest development in its accustomed range caused it to migrate, and it now is found only the dunes west of Highway 101 between Coos Bay and Florence - Many Rivers Group territory. This genetically distinct sub-population of Pacific Marten was listed as Threatened in 2020. Its Critical Habitat, including most of the Dunes National Recreation Area, was established last summer.
Settler efforts to build homes and roads in the dunes led to dune stabilization efforts from the 1930's until quite recently, using European Beachgrass, with roots up to 30' feet deep. These plantings established a "sea wall" of grass-stabilized sand along the upper beaches which cut off the supply of loose sand blowing south along the beaches into the dunes and prevented the free flow of sand which made Oregon's dunes the among the largest in the country (and inspired the Sci-Fi Dune novels).
The newly stabilized area behind the sea wall is a wet lowland called the deflation plane. Once the foredune was stabilized, a thick shore pine/brush forest began growing in the deflation plane, gradually spreading over the decades into the high dunes. It is this newly generated forest which is the home territory of our central coast Coastal Marten, now designated as Coastal Marten Critical Habitat.
While the new forest protects the listed marten, other listed species such as the Snowy Plover and the Tiger Beetle are dependent on free-flowing dunes for their survival. So, it's a complicated problem with no clear solution. Efforts to restore areas of the dunes outside Marten Critical Habitat continue but have been scaled back. With a total population of less than 100 individuals, the central coast marten population must find a way to link with other marten populations somehow if it is to remain viable.
Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) owners are an active and important user of the Dunes National Recreation Area between Coos Bay and Florence, and tens of thousands of these high-powered, noisy vehicles are sometimes involved in massive gatherings which have impacted identified marten Critical Habitat. The Center for Biological Diversity has sued the Siuslaw National Forest, which manages the Dunes National Recreation Area, to require them to enforce their own regulations on OHV area use and vehicle noise. That lawsuit is ongoing.
Our webinar presenters are:
Tala Dibenedetto a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity, and
Maggie Hallerud of Oregon State University Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences, a Coastal Marten researcher.
The webinar is 6-7:30 PM on January 15. We hope to see you there!
Image courtesy Oregon State University
