PORTLAND, Ore.— In response to a petition from conservation groups, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 4-3 late Friday to protect Humboldt martens from trapping. Fewer than 200 of the martens survive in the state’s coastal forests.

The new trapping guidelines ban all marten trapping west of the Interstate 5 corridor. The rules also ban all commercial and recreational mammal trapping in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and all traps and snares suspended in trees in the Siskiyou and Siuslaw national forests.

“I’m so relieved Humboldt martens will scamper wild and free in our coastal forests without fear of dying in a trap,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Banning trapping is a big first step toward safeguarding these cute creatures. Now we need wildlife crossings on highways and reconnected forest habitats.”

Only two isolated marten populations survive in Oregon…