The entire county needs to be ready for the arrival of the pine marten after they are reintroduced

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust programme manager RUTH PILBEAM talks about the work under way to prepare Derbyshire for the return of the pine marten and how the Derwent Living Forest programme is laying the foundations for a wilder, more resilient county...

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FROM restoring woodland habitats and working with landowners, to exploring the role of this charismatic native predator in balancing ecosystems and boosting biodiversity, reintroduction is so important.

A missing native predator, pine martens are charismatic animals, about the size of a cat with chestnut brown fur and a creamy yellow bib over the throat and chest.

Visitors flock to catch a glimpse at ecotourism sites across Scotland and the North of England, where feeding platforms are baited with peanut butter and pine martens eat and play, twisting and turning like their relatives the otter, polecat and ferret.

Pine martens are excellent representatives of a wilder landscape and their role has been key in the growth of ecotourism and more people getting to connect with nature.

Pine martens are a missing native species.

They play a key role in creating healthy woodland ecosystems and in their role as a predator, they can have significant impacts rebalancing levels of pest species such as the nonnative grey squirrel.

Having evolved alongside the pine marten, native red squirrel can evade the pine marten, but the nonnative grey squirrel is quickly caught.

In the short-term, this creates a ready food source for recovering pine marten populations while also reducing grey squirrel numbers to the point at which longer-term a red squirrel recovery project may become possible.

This highlights the crucial role species reintroductions play in restoring and sustaining healthy ecosystems.