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2010 Trapping Season Announced 
 
The 2010 season dates are now available online at: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/hunt/seasdate.htm.
2010 WTA Proxy Form  
 
Proxy.doc
 
 
New Membership Rates 
 
October 2010 - The WTA membership voted at the Fall Meeting to raise the current membership rates to take effect on January 1, 2010.
        
       New Rates taking effect on January 1, 2010 are:
 
Regular Membership w/ T&PC $30.00 per year
3 Year Regular Membership w/ T&PC $80.00 
Junior Membership (17 & Under) w/T&PC $15.00 per year
Family Membership w/T&PC $30.00 per year
Membership without T&PC $15.00 per year
Lifetime Membership (Under 65) w/T&PC $500.00
Lifetime Membership (Over 65) w/T&PC $300.00
Lifetime Membership (Husband & Wife) w/T&PC $600.00
Future Trappers of Wisconsin (no T&PC)  Free
 
Membership application

Parasites of short-tailed and long-tailed weasels

Philip Borsdorf, Dr. Shelli Dubay – University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, and Richard Thiel – WDNR

During the 2007-2008 trapping season, we began investigating parasites common to short-tailed (Mustela erminea) and long-tailed (M. frenata) weasels in central Wisconsin.  Weasel carcasses were donated by trapper, Maynard Breunig, to UW-Stevens Point students for examination.  This year, we hope to add information to the data set from last year.  The objective of the project is to determine long-term trends in the prevalence and intensity of parasites in Wisconsin’s weasels.  We hypothesize that 1) parasite loads will differ with weasel species, and 2) adults will have a higher prevalence of parasites than juveniles.  We are also interested in determining habitat use for each of the 3 weasel species that occur in Wisconsin, and we wish to obtain more information on their distribution in the state.

 Results from 2007-08

We examined 21 long-tailed weasels (8 females and 13 males; 4 juveniles and 9 adults) and 16 short-tailed weasels (12 females and 4 males; 3 juveniles and 1 adult).  All females were considered adults.  

We found Filaroides martis, a parasitic nematode of the respiratory tract, in 35% of the 37 weasels necropsied.  Males and females were equally infected with these parasites and short-tailed and long-tailed weasels were equally infected as well.   However, juvenile males (both species) had higher prevalence than adult males ( =4.496, P=0.034), a finding that did not support our hypothesis!   Adult F. martis occur within nodules attached to the lungs of their hosts where they lay eggs. After hatching, the first-stage larvae travel up the trachea and are then swallowed by the weasels.  Larvae exit the body via feces and then infect gastropods (snails and slugs) as intermediate hosts, where these parasites molt into their second and third stage.  Weasels ingest infected gastropods and F. martis molts two more times as it migrates to the lungs and completes its life cycle. High prevalence and intensity of parasites can impact reproductive output, ability to capture prey, and internal processes vital for survival.  

Needs for Winter 2008-2009

We will focus our parasite work in Portage, Marathon, Wood, Lincoln, and Langlade counties so we can compare parasite loads from weasels trapped this season to those from last winter.  We will determine sex and age distribution, habitat use, and diets to understand more about the natural history of these weasels in Wisconsin.  We also hope to add least weasels (M. nivalis) to this study.

Interested trappers in counties mentioned above should contact: Phil Borsdorf

Phone #: 815-281-0990

E-mail: pbors191@uwsp.edu

701 Franklin Street

Stevens Point, WI 54481

 We can supply collection bags, data cards, and instructions. Once trappers have completed skinning animals, each weasel should be individually bagged, data cards should be filled out and inserted into the bag, and weasels should be frozen until arrangements can be made for their transfer to UWSP.

 Thank you to The Wisconsin Trapper’s Association for providing weasels for our study.  Look for our results in spring 2009.

 

 

Governor Signs Senate Bill 112 into law - August 13, 2009

Senate Bill 112 makes changes to allow more flexibility for hunters and trappers selling green skins, scents and lures, while helping the Department of Natural Resources identify illegal trappers. 

Under current law, each trap used by a licensed trapper must have a metal tag that has the name and address of the owner of the trap. The bill changes this requirement so that the name and address must be that of the operator of the trap.

Under the bill, the operator of a trap may use, in lieu of the name and address, a customer identification number issued by DNR to the operator under DNR’s automated system for issuing trapping licenses and other fishing and hunting
approvals.

http://www.wisgov.state.wi.us/journal_media_detail.asp?locid=19&prid=4477


http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2009/data/SB-112.pdf

Thanks to all those who introduced and pushed for this legislation. 

 

2009 Fur Tagging Dates as Provided by the WI DNR

John Olson - WI DNR - Attached are the 2009 fur tagging dates for our law enforcement staff in Wisconsin. By getting this out early it should help trappers with their planning needs.

FUR TAGGING DATES REPORT

 

 

2009 Election Results

From Earl Klippel, Chair person of the nomination/election committee.

We have the results from the 3/21/1009 voting as follows:

Virgil Schroeder is the new President, Chris Bezio is the NTA Director, and Pam Mather has been accepted by the BOD as the new Treasurer.

Nominations are open till April 1 for positions of Vice President and Secretary. Nominations so far are for:
Vice President
Lee Sillars, Mike Leiser, Greg Schroeder

Secretary - none  (nomination withdrawn)

Nominations may be sent (printable form) or phoned into the nomination committee members:

Earl Klippel -  1928 State Road 175 Richfield,Wi 53076 (262)388-3328 
Bill Peters -  571 Reddin Rd. WI Rapids, Wi 54495 (715)421-4405
Ron Peters -  10421 State Highway 13 S. WI Rapids, Wi 54494 (715)325-3336

The election policy is printed in the March issue of the WI Trapper, page 39, or click here to read.

NOMINATION POLICIES:

Call for nominations go into November Wisconsin Trapper

Nominations Will be accepted starting January 1 Through April 1

Nominations shall be made by US mail, email, at the spring general membership meeting, or in person to a member of the nomination committee.

Nominees must be members in good standing at the time of nomination .

All candidates will be contacted no later than April 5th to confirm their desire to run for the position they have been nominated for.

Confirmation from each candidate on his or her desire to run for office they have been nominated for shall be done no later than April 15, utilizing the US mail, email, or by phone call. This will allow the candidates running the opportunity to put 2 articles in the Wisconsin Trapper.

Candidates will be advised of who their opponents are allowing them to make an informed decision as to whether or not they will be running for the office they have been nominated for.

Adopted 06/16/2007

WTA HALL OF FAME

The WTA is starting a new award. It is for the HALL OF FAME.

To nominate a candidate the form found here  needs to be filled out with as much detailed information included as possible.

Below is some information to start and we could change it as we learn and go:

1. No limit on the number of inductees for now. 

2. There will be a perpetual plaque put somewhere with the award winners name on. The WTA board has not decided where yet. 

3. Each person inducted will get a personal plaque or,  if deceased, their family will get it.

Please have nomination forms to Chris Bezio by June 15th annually so the nominations may be considered and the honorees can get inducted at the fall meeting.

Wisconsin Weasel Study

I have been asked by Dick Theil of Sandhill to collect weasel carcasses for UWSP students to collect data from. It should be pretty basic, just put the carcass in a Ziploc and write the location trapped, habitat type, and date. The carcasses could be collected at the Spring Banquet or District Spring meetings. So little is known on these three species, that any finding will be helpful.

Here is a list of things they will be studying:

Determine species composition of collections
Determine habitat type(s) each species collected in
Determine:
1. sex ratio, by species
2. age, by species
3. reproductive status
4. intestinal parasites & food habits
5. various body measurements
6. collect skeletons for museums (UWSP and/or UWZ)
So instead of tossing the carcasses, give a few to the WI weasel study.

If you trap weasels and are interested, give me a shout: 715-423-3229

Thanks,
Scott Mc Auley
 

 Trap Display for McKenzie Wildlife Center Education Building,   October 2006 

This permanent display was constructed by Gary Mather and presented to the Educational Center on behalf of  District 10.  All the traps were generously donated by Duke Trap Company.  It replaces a small collection of traps, some of which were out of date.  This updated display shows most all traps commonly used today in WI.   The traps are all labeled with the type of trap and the animals it is generally used for. 

The last we heard, McKenzie is still waiting for a collection of antique traps owned by Villa Louis to become available.  There is an area in another building that they will be displayed in. 

If you are ever near Poynette, WI stop in and see them if you get a chance!

Improved Incidental Furbearer Harvest Procedures

By John Irwin  (2004)

Well folks, it’s finally happened! Through persistence and the input of many trappers the process to handle incidentally harvested furbearers has been improved.

Beginning immediately, trappers can follow the old procedures, namely leave an incidental catch and contact a DNR warden for instructions, or can use a telephone call-in system. The 1-800-TIP-WDNR (1-800-847-9367) lline can be utilized to report incidental catches.

The DNR wardens have agreed that the old method of having to leave an animal in the trap was costly to both trappers and wardens in both time and gas expenses. In today’s world, with the popularity of cellular telephones, it makes great sense to allow trappers to use tools such as this to report incidental catches.

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.

 

By following these procedures, the reporting and collection of incidental furbearers is much easier and cost effective for everyone.

The reporting of incidentally caught furbearers is important to all trappers. The DNR currently estimates the number of incidental catches and feeds these numbers into the computer population models for furbearers. The current numbers used by the DNR are estimated on the “high side” to ensure that our harvest goals are conservative. This ensures that annual harvest will not harm furbearer populations. If more accurate numbers are used by the computer models, it is very possible that trappers may see an increase in safe harvest goals.

You may ask the question: “What should I do if I do not have a cellular telephone?” The answer to this is simple, you have two choices: you can follow the old procedures and contact your local warden directly, or you can call the DNR HOTLINE from the nearest telephone. In either case, you must leave the animal in the trap until you make contact with the DNR!

If you have questions relating to this new procedure, please contact me directly. If I can not answer your question, I will get the answer from the WTA DNR Warden Liaison, John Welke.

 The Wisconsin Trappers Association thanks its Sponsors for their ongoing financial support

Sponsorship Levels

Bronze Level Sponsor -  $250.00 to $499.99  

At the Bronze Level you will receive a business card size ad in the Rendezvous Edition of the Wisconsin Trapper, 6,000 are published and distributed. A one year complimentary membership to the WTA and 2 admission buttons for the Fall Rendezvous. A sign with your sponsorship level and name placed on the grounds of the rendezvous along with verbal recognition at the membership meeting held on Sunday of the event.

Silver Level Sponsor, $500.00 to $999.99   

At the Silver Level you will receive a ¼ page ad in the Rendezvous Edition of the Wisconsin Trapper plus 1 other issue of your choice. The Wisconsin Trapper is a quarterly publication. A one year complimentary membership to the WTA and 2 admission buttons for the Fall Rendezvous. A sign with your name and sponsorship level placed on the grounds along with verbal recognition at the membership meeting held on the Sunday of the event.

Gold Level Sponsor -  $1,000 or more   

At the Gold Level you receive a ½ page ad in the Rendezvous Edition of the Wisconsin Trapper plus one ¼ page ad in the three following issues. The Wisconsin Trapper is a quarterly publication. A one year complimentary membership to the WTA and 2 admission buttons for the Fall Rendezvous. A sign with your name and sponsorship level placed on the grounds along with verbal recognition at the membership meeting held on the Sunday of the event.



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