Nafa subtly suggests........

[RdFx]

Nafa has suggested to not actively pursue bvr! Our bvr in Wi could use a reprieve plus shorter season in spring. The extensive trapping plus the wolves hankering for BrvMCburgers along with the bears hankerings keep our bvr population low.

[trappnman]

we got open water now- but with the lack of beaver I saw on the small streams feeding into the rivers, I think or population has taken a hit from the floods & recent bad winters- so add that to the low prices, I think I'd be money ahead waiting for gophers rather than going after what few beaver there are

Regarding seasons- I'd like to see the seasons shortened a bit- memory makes me think that when we had seasons ending dec 31, we had stable populations from year to year. during the past 10 years, with mild winters and huge harvests on everything from coon to rats, I've seen the populations of multiple species dropping every year.

I logically thing mink trapping in jan and feb hurts nothing...yet....I take less mink per year now on average than I took 10-20 years ago.

[RdFx]

Ive talked last nite to other mink trappers at our Wi District 6 meeting and they are all WAY down on mink, rats. One mink trapper that usually hits close to or over 100 mink a year here in Wi., which isnt the norm, got only 27 mink this year and 25 rats. Years ago running my mink line i would take 150 to 200 rats alone in mink sets and took care of gas with $$ to spare....Wi is doing a new bvr program but nothing has come out yet. Wi going over NAFA and FHA fur records show a dramatic decrease in blanket bvr being taken also. Writing is on the wall.

[thorsmightyhammer]

Huge harvests?

We are not taking near what we got in the boom days.

[RdFx]

True not like the boom days but buyers arent buying the fur in volumes as they once did.

[blackhammer]

Mar 22, 2014 9:52:16 GMT -6 RdFx said:

Nafa has suggested to not actively pursue bvr! Our bvr in Wi could use a reprieve plus shorter season in spring. The extensive trapping plus the wolves hankering for BrvMCburgers along with the bears hankerings keep our bvr population low.

Did NAFA issue something that actually said don't trap beaver?

[RiverRat]

What he said ??

[trappnman]

the boom days, were a relatively short window in time- and yes, stuff was hit hard then. but the difference, might or might not be, seasons closed 2 months before they did now. and much of that boom was sheer numbers- Mn had what 27,000 lic trappers during the boom, to 1/3 of that today- lots of guys with 3-4 furs made up those huge harvest- whereas now, we got more travel, more concentrated hits at the populations-

I fully understand, that a female is of the same breeding age in oct as nov- but also, in oct/nov we have the year high population totals, and so lets say (to simplify things) that we have 100 breeding age females in an area- a large % of those will be dead in jan, whether we harvest or not-

so by trapping into march, are we hitting those remaining breeders too hard?

I don't know, just know that I've never seen such low populations of EVERYTHING in 50+ years- and its come on gradually, little less every year. I haven't seen coon for example with this low of numbers since circa 1960.

I'm only saying I never thought I'd even consider that perhaps our seasons, might be too long, at least in eras of low populations, but now I'm starting to wonder, if for at least a few years, we need to end seasons earlier.

[musher]

Seasons for most things end March 1 here. But we usually only trap hard until just before Xmas. I've done it differently and the result was much fewer animals the following year.

I'm talking about registered lines where there is no competition.

Animals are very hungry now. Winter will not quite and there is very little prey. I've seen two very skinny fox lately and the lynx are wandering the roads. Any food I put out is gone quickly and they dig craters around it for scraps left by the ravens.

It doesn't look good for the next season.

[blackhammer]

Think fur prices the next couple of years will take care of any shorting seasons talk. As far as beaver in the north last year and possibly this year the season looks to be really have been cut short by weather. In the south between the DNR and farmers killing them I bet fur trappers are number three on the list has far as total killed. This crazy attitude that beaver are pests is a joke. No better wildlife habitat than a beaver pond.

[RdFx]

Blackhammer you hit the nail on the head with your last post....DNR here in Wi doesnt want to deal with bvr so anyone can shoot them on their own land...plus the fisheries of the DNR have gov trappers hit every stream or trickle of water near trout streams to keep bvr out JUST in the summer time for the screaming trout fishermen. Now i love to fish trout but not at the expense of the bvr.
Concerning Nafa on bvr, nothing from corporate, this is from Nafa people down at Stoughton , Wi., Nafas' recieving station.

[thorsmightyhammer]

Habitat loss and new farming practices will do more damage to animal populations that us trappers ever will.

The new way we farm and spread chemicals willy nilly is going to be disastrous.

[rionueces]

It's possible to trap everything out of existence. Until recently there were large areas of central TX that had very few coyotes due to years of government trapping for sheep and goat ranchers.

[blackhammer]

Mar 24, 2014 7:39:39 GMT -6 rionueces said:

It's possible to trap everything out of existence. Until recently there were large areas of central TX that had very few coyotes due to years of government trapping for sheep and goat ranchers.

Couldn't have come uo with a worse example than trapping coyotes out of existence. They been trying for a hundred years.

[RiverRat]

Mar 24, 2014 7:39:39 GMT -6 rionueces said:

It's possible to trap everything out of existence. Until recently there were large areas of central TX that had very few coyotes due to years of government trapping for sheep and goat ranchers.

LMAO

[wbg]

X3

[TrapperRon]

I have not heard anything relative to NOT trapping spring beaver. It may be the opinion of someone at Stoughton that due to poor beaver prices and clearances they advised to a question like "Do you think it will be a good idea to trap spring beaver?"

[rionueces]

I guess you didn't read my post. I'm not bull ..itting you.

Perhaps no other area of the United States (U.S.) can boast of a more effective and successful coyote predation control program than the Edwards Plateau region of Texas. This area has been under intensive predator management since at least1915. The use of a variety of control tools eventually led to the extirpation of coyotes, red wolves (C. rufus), and gray wolves (C. lupus) from the major sheep production areas. Exactly how this task was accomplished is unknown, but Shelton and Klindt (1974) suggested that it resulted from a “massive human effort using all of the tools and techniques which could be brought to bear.”

By the early 1920s, all red wolves and nearly all coyotes were eliminated from the interior sheep and goat producing counties of the Edwards Plateau (Nunley 1986). It wasn’t until the 1970s that coyotes began to re-establish; red wolves have not reinvaded the area.

Over the years many control tools have been used, including toxicants, shooting, aerial hunting, calling, dogs, traps, cyanide ejectors, snares, denning, and more recently the LPC. A historical review of each major control method is provided below.


For more info go to: agrilife.org/texnatwildlife/coyotes/table-of-contents/historical-perspective-on-coyote-control-methods-in-texas/

[bobbrennan]

CAN YOU SAY POISON!

[trappnman]

a question for all- if harvest (as one factor) has no effect on populations- why do we have ANY limits or seasons?