Humboldt marten

Humboldt marten
Individual on tree in Six Rivers National Forest
Conservation status
Critically Imperiled  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Mustelidae
Genus:	Martes
Species:	M. americana
Subspecies:	M. a. humboltensis
Trinomial name
Martes americana humboltensis ( Grinnell and Dixon, 1926)

The Humboldt marten (Martes caurina humboldtensis, formerly Martes americana humboldtensis) is an endangered, genetically distinct subspecies of the Pacific marten known only from the old-growth coastal redwood forests of the U.S. states of California and Oregon. Less than 300 of them survive in both states combined, in three different populations of 100 each; one in northern California, one straddling the California-Oregon border, and one in Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. The subspecies was in fact considered extinct until being rediscovered in the Six Rivers National Forest in 1996. They are most threatened by a lack of population expansion and by human-caused mortalities, including trapping and road mortality. While California has already banned all commercial trapping of martens, Oregon still permits it. In response, environmental organizations seek a ban on trapping west of Interstate 5. However, in California itself the marten is threatened by the increasing number of marijuana farms destroying its habitat in the area.