October 7

WTA District 3 Report 2/09

I hope all of you have had a good winter and trapping season. It sure seems like the economy is affecting everyone in one way or another. I hope none of you are facing real hard times, and that things turn around soon.

By the time you read this, I will no longer be District 3 Director. I have had a long enough run and sure did enjoy representing the district members. I also enjoyed putting together our summer rendezvous, spring meeting, attending board meetings, and seeing and hearing from each of you. However, I am ready to move onto other things. It will be nice to have someone new, who has fresh ideas to represent you and me as Director.

Get your trapper education classes set now and then let Mike Kortenhof know, so he can get you your supplies and the class announced. Right now I know that there are 3 classes set within the district for the month of April and 1 in September. Check out the WTA or DNR website to find the dates or contact Mike.

You’ll likely be reading this just prior to the spring WTA meeting and banquet. I hope to see many of you there. The very important WTA elections will be held at the meeting. It is also our year to lend a hand at the banquet. Please help out if you plan to attend.

Our summer rendezvous will be on June 13 in Hawkins again. I don’t think that we will be having our own gun raffle this year. With the economy the way it is and the state raffle needing help, I think it is best for us to just sell and purchase tickets for the big state raffle. Those winners will be drawn at the spring banquet in March, so sell quickly!! All proceeds from that raffle will get split 12 ways. Half will go to the WTA and the rest will get split 11 ways for each of the districts. We will definitely have raffles during the day of our rendezvous.

Remember that the 2010 NTA convention will be in Marshfield! Start planning to attend and lend a hand. This event will require a lot of help from WTA members. Let’s make it an event no trapper will ever forget.

I am glad to have represented you as district director and I look forward to helping the WTA in other ways. Be sure to keep supporting trapping and the WTA!

John Gillen

District 10 Report - 8/10/09

District 10 has reserved the Edgerton Conservation Club grounds on August 22, 2009 for the summer rendezvous. The event will be free for WTA members and youth 16 years of age and younger. Non-WTA members will be charged a fee of $3. Lunch will be provided by the Edgerton Conservation Club at a modest cost. Trapping demonstrations will run throughout the day and trapping supply vendors will be present. Trapping demonstrations will include muskrat, mink, raccoon, coyote, beaver, and cable restraints. The rendezvous will run from 8 AM until 4 PM. A business meeting will be held prior to lunch. We will hold the District 10 50:50 coon raffle and draw the raffle prizes at 3 PM. Raffle tickets are being mailed to all District 10 members and extra tickets are available from Scot Stewart or at the rendezvous.

Demonstration Agenda:

8AM - Kirk Upperman – Griz Getrs

9 – Pat Varney – Coon

10 – Tom Olson – Beaver

11 – Dennis Brady – Muskrat and Mink

1PM – Todd Hesgard – Canines

2 – Dan Carrol – Cable Restraints

Directions:

Edgerton Conservation Club – NW corner of Racetrack Park

http://www.edgertonwisconsin.com/pages/m_maps.html

4/09

District 10 WTA had our March 7 meeting at NAFA in Stoughton. Attendance was excellent and we had a great meeting. Many members donated items for a daily raffle and we made a nice profit for the day. We thank them. Kirk Upperman and Dennis Brady fixed a great lunch of fried fish and everyone went home with a full stomach. Thanks. After lunch, Greg Schroeder showed members fur grading on several species of furbearers. This is always popular and we thank Greg again.

Members voted to sponsor a scholarship for a natural resources upper classman at UW Stevens Point for $500 annually. A committee was formed consisting of Dennis Brady, Mark Peters, Gary Mather, and Doug Fendry. The committee will generate applicants and choose a recipient for fall 2010.

Members also voted to sponsor trapping equipment for young trappers completing trapper’s education, up to $200 for supplies for the trapper’s education course at Larry Meyer’s discretion, $200. for Rock Valley Pheasants Forever Youth Outdoor Day, and $200 for the FTA.

District Director Scot Stewart reserved the Edgerton Conservation Club grounds on August 22, 2009 for the summer rendezvous. The event will be free for WTA members and youth 16 years of age and younger. Non-members will be charged a fee of $3. Lunch will be provided by the Edgerton Conservation Club at a modest cost. Trapping demonstrations will run throughout the day and trapping supply vendors will be present. The rendezvous will run from 8 AM until 4 PM. A business meeting will be held prior to lunch. We will hold the District 10 50:50 coon raffle drawing that day and an advertised raffle will be held. We will mail tickets to members in advance of the rendezvous.

Larry Meyer will hold a trappers education course at the Edgerton Conservation Club on August 15 and August22, 2009. Call Larry for details on the course.

Since Virgil Schroeder was elected president of the WTA at the spring meeting, District 10 is looking for a new co-director to help Scot Stewart. If you have an interest in helping, give Scot a call.

District 10 will be manning the WTA booth at the Deer and Turkey Expo in Madison on April 3-5, 2009.

The Conservation Congress hearings will be held in all Wisconsin counties on April 13, 2009. Make sure to attend and vote.

I hope this update finds all of you well.

Scot Stewart

12/30/06 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ TURN THEM IN! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

There are many reasons to turn in incidental catches. Number one it is a waste of a resource to just toss them over the bank. And I hate to waste anything. The WDNR also needs accurate numbers to do the population modeling and harvest predictions. My idea is if the animal is dead is was probably alive at one time, makes sense so far right? And the population of that animal was then higher than the population model thought, (so far so good) Right now they use a very high number (a guess) for incidentals, car kills and illegal animals that are dead. I believe we can get them to reduce that number. So, if we start with more animals, we should get more tags someday. After they are turned in the eventually make it to Madison and a really big freezer. These animals are used in trapper education courses thru out the state and several university fur schools that help train the next wildlife biologists. The warden recruits have a week of fur/trapping training where the critters are used for hours of hands on skinning and fleshing. The skins are then sold and now the proceeds are used in the trapper education program. This “extra” money will fund our trapper education program to the next level!

If you beaver trap in the spring, eventually you will have more otter than tags, turn them in. call the wardens in the areas you trap ahead of time, and ask them how they want to handle it. Or call the hotline 1-800-wdnr-tip. If you choose to use the 1-800-WDNR-TIP line, you should follow the procedures listed below before moving an incidentally caught animal:
• Contact the DNR HOTLINE at 1-800-WDNR-TIP and report the incident.
• The trapper must provide the HOTLINE dispatcher with your name, address, date of birth, home telephone number, license number and the animal that was caught. (Occasionally, the HOTLINE dispatcher may be busy and unable to take your call. In this instance, the trapper should either call back a short time later or leave all the information listed above on the voice-mail system.)
• Once you have contacted the HOTLINE, you may remove the untagged animal from the trap and transport it to your residence or a DNR Service Center. If you are stopped by a Warden, you should give the warden the date and time of your HOTLINE call.
• The HOTLINE dispatcher will relay your call to the nearest available warden ASAP for follow up. You should keep the incidentally caught animal at your residence until contacted by the warden with further instructions.
We all know phones don’t work everywhere, but it will save you time and miles. Just 3 years ago we turned in about 75 otter, last year about 200. I think that number is still low. So turn them in!

See ya, Scott mcauley