There was a plan to release hundreds of pine martens — a slender, furry predator native to the Upper Midwest — in Michigan's lower peninsula over several years.
That never happened.
Instead state biologists introduced a few dozen animals over a couple months in the 1980s, and none others since.
Their descendants have struggled to recover, while martens in the Upper Peninsula have thrived.
Research led by the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians has monitored martens near the Manistee National Forest for years and looked at what they might need to come back. Read the full story here.
Also, how to decipher tracks left by birds hunting in the snow.
