When I was younger, trapping was a big part of my outdoor adventures. The NYS DEC offered me a job as a state trapper in my early 20s, which I didn’t take. I continued trapping a little even after returning from Vietnam. It is an activity that taught me much about the great outdoors and provide a little extra spending money.
Today, trappers get a bad rap from the “do-gooders” and “tree huggers” but only because those folks really don’t understand what goes on out there. Trappers are an important part of wildlife management and most of our best wildlife managers were trappers at one time or other. The two best past wildlife managers for our local NYS Wildlife Management Areas were “die in the wool” trappers. They had learned a lot about wildlife and our environment even before they got their official education in it.
Yes, man did overdo things with trapping many years ago when our country was young and fur prices and furbearer numbers were high. There seemed to be an endless supply of it, but we finally got smart and developed good laws for controlled harvesting. Beavers were big money back then and eventually this great environmental developer was almost taken out of existence, but today he is in fine shape and in many instances considered a nuisance. Trapping seasons and regulation did that. In those early days, fur not only provided a livelihood for many but also provided warmth, beautiful clothing and sport. Today, much of our fur use has been replaced by synthetics and has gone out of style, with much of it actually going overseas. Trapping is much like deer hunting. We have overdone the “protection” thing and now we have too many deer causing damage to the habitat by overbrowsing, doing a lot of crop damage, shrub and flower damage around our homes and putting a lot of danger on our roads. Hopefully, new management tactics will be developed to get the deer population down to a healthy level. The same goes for beavers, muskrats, raccoons, coyotes and foxes, except we don’t have the trappers we use to and with incorrect public opinion going against trapping, it is becoming less and less of a management tool. Without good management tools like hunting and trapping, wildlife will eventually destroy itself by diseases and starvation. Our lands have been developed, destroyed and abused by man so much that they can no longer support the wildlife we once had.
Right now we have a high population of raccoons because there has been no fur market value for them in recent years. So now this overpopulation is destroying a lot of other wildlife, like bird nesting (especially any ground-nesting birds like turkeys and ducks) and have become a real nuisance around our homes and a danger on our highways. Good example — I have trapped five raccoons on my back porch this summer that had been destroying my potted flower pots. They are also great carriers of diseases (rabies, canine distemper, raccoon roundworm) and I feel that they have also been the reason for many of the eagle nest failures in this area over the last few years. The interest in raccoon fur is starting to raise overseas so hopefully trappers will be targeting them again.
Sadly, our youth is not getting into trapping like years ago and the trappers we have are getting older. Trapping is a necessary method for keeping our great outdoors in balance and it is not the barbaric sport most folks think it is. Trappers get to know the environment much better than other outdoor folks. They really are doing us and wildlife a favor.
Trapping season for raccoon, fox, skunk, coyote, opossum and weasel begins Oct. 25th and runs until February 15th. Muskrat and mink start Nov. 10th and run until Feb. 15th. Beaver starts Nov. 10th and ends April 7th. For trappers wishing to trap on our local Oak Orchard, Tonawanda and John White WMAs, permit applications will be available for pickup Mon. thru Fri. at the INWR office between 8 am and 4 pm or by calling the DEC at 585-948-5182. Applications will be accepted until Nov. 30th. Some of the seasons run a little differently on these WMAs from the state seasons. Muskrat and mink are Dec. 5th to Feb. 15th and are limited to 25 water sites. Beaver remains the same as the rest of the state. On upland trapping, at the John White WMA, begins Nov. 1. Trappers in these areas are required to report their harvesting numbers.
As a side note, there is ongoing National Grid electric line construction at the John White and Tonawanda WMAs, so posted signs at access points must be followed and entrance to construction areas (including areas with wooden construction mats) is not allowed.