“...a basic characteristic of natural Martes populations is lack of stability. Such instability means, in turn, that age structures and mortalities are constantly reponding to changing population conditions.” P. 100

“...harvesting affects more than population size. It affects population dynamics, age structure, sex ratio, spacing patterns, and probably mating patterns and foraging costs. All these changes must be considered in management programs. Unharvested populations of Martes exhibit marked fluctuation in size, sometime in excess of an order of magnitude, in response to fluctuation in prey populations.” p. 101

“A common goal of managing furbearing wildlife, including Martes populations is to stabilize population sizes...Stable populations are easier to manage because small changes in numbers can be monitored and modestly understood...Such harvested populations obviously cannot exhibit natural population dynamics or popoulation structure.” p.102

“...home ranges were smallest in old-age forest when prey populations were high and largest in recently logged forest when prey populations were low.” p. 110

“...from very low to very high prey population densities, the following pattern of change in marten spacing is predicted: transient --> exclusive territories, decreasing in size --> intrasexual territories, decreasing in size --> extensive home range overlap...[This] may explain much of the variation home range overlap that have been reported for Martes.” p.117

Patchy habitat was found in this Michigan study area, were two distinct habitat types were predominant, each with its own prey species. The first was “open, upland northern hardwood habitats that had interspersed stands of hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and white pine (Pinus strobus).” This habitat was inhabited by porcupines which were a large part of the fisher. The second habitat, inhabited by the snowshoe hair that made up the other large part of the fisher’s diet was “dense, lowland habitat characterized by black spruce (Picea mariana), white cedar (Thuja occidentalis) and alder (Alnus spp.).” p. 118