Times of low fur prices help to highlight many of the other reasons trappers get out in the field. Not only is trapping an enjoyable and fulfilling activity that gets folks close with nature and their subsistence background, harvesting furbearers is also critical to proper wildlife management. Here's a quote from Luke Laha in a recent Wichita Eagle article following a … [Read more...]
Indiana Considers Otter Trapping Season
After a successful re-introduction of river otters to the state, Indiana wildlife officials are considering a fur trapping season for otters for the first time in decades. INDIANAPOLIS — Efforts to restore Indiana's river otter population have been so successful over the last two decades that state wildlife officials say they need to cull the population. The Natural … [Read more...]
Maine IF&W Suspends Marten, Fisher Trapping to Protect Lynx
December 9, 2014 IFW News -- IFW Adopts Emergency Trapping Rule Changes In Northern Maine For Immediate Release: December 9, 2014 AUGUSTA, Maine -- The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has implemented immediate trapping regulation changes through an emergency rule making process after two Canada lynx were killed in traps this fall. “We are taking … [Read more...]
Maine Hunters, Trappers Prevail in Bear Referendum
From the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance: In a ballot initiative with national repercussions, Maine voters once again sent an unmistakable message to animal-rights extremists: stay out of our state. For the second time in 10 years, Maine voters resoundingly rejected a ballot initiative backed and bankrolled by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Throughout the battle … [Read more...]
Bob Noonan on Bear Trapping
On Tuesday November 4th, Maine voters will decide whether to ban the use of bait, hounds and traps to hunt bears in the state. Perhaps the most misunderstood of these methods is bear trapping. Bob Noonan explains bear trapping well in his Lewiston Sun Journal article: Bear trapping is heavily regulated. A special bear trapping permit is required, and is available only to … [Read more...]
Improving Marten Habitat With Nest Boxes
The recovery success story of the wood duck in North America hinged on agencies and volunteers putting up countless nesting boxes to fill a crucial habitat need that was keeping duck densities lower than they could have otherwise been. It worked amazingly well for ducks. Could something similar work for the American marten - a popular furbearer whose numbers have declined in … [Read more...]
Wolf Hunting, Trapping to Begin in Wisconsin
In addition to Idaho, Montana and Minnesota, trappers will likely be able to pursue wolves in Wisconsin this fall. Recent wolf delisting by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has turned over wolf management to the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Wisconsin season would include managed hunting and trapping, with a goal to reduce the wolf population to a more publicly … [Read more...]
Montana, Minnesota to Open Wolf Trapping Seasons
Recent developments within the Minnesota legislature and the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission will allow the public to trap for wolves in the two states for the first time in decades. Wolf management was transferred from the federal government to the state of Minnesota in January when the population was removed from the Endangered Species List. The state is now … [Read more...]