- Headlines!  updated 06-29-09

Election results and nomination information 3-21-2009

        Horicon Trapping Units Auction

• Trapping season shortened at Tower Ridge

• WTA Hall of Fame Information

• WTA Sponsorship Levels

• UW Stevens Point - Weasel Study

• Trap display for McKenzie Wildlife Center

• Future Trappers of Wisconsin - mentors needed

• Improved Incidental Furbearer Harvest Procedures

 Scroll down to view all the articles or click on a headline to go to a specific article.

WTA Mtg. & District Reports

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Secretary - none  (nomination withdrawn)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
.

Horicon Trapping Units Auction

            HORICON --The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will be holding a public trapping auction at the Horicon DNR Field Office 1210 N. Palmatory Street on Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. 

                 DNR will have five to seven impoundment units available to bidders for furbearer trapping rights.  Trapping units will be open October 25, 2008 through March 15, 2009.  Trapping unit sizes range from 70-300 acres.  Upland trapping permits will be available to anyone possessing a valid trapping license at no charge.  Trappers are required to bid in person and may bid on more than one unit, but trapping rights will be limited to one unit per trapper.  An individual is restricted to only one unit, either as a trapper or a helper.   

The USFWS will have four dike units and one designated upland unit available for sale at the auction.  The remainder of the upland areas will be offered to any interested trapper at no charge.  Upland trapping will be open from October 25, 2008 through March 15, 2009 and dike trapping will be open from December 1, 2008 through March 15, 2009.  Horicon National Wildlife Refuge trapping units will be sold to the highest bidder with a limit of one unit per trapper.  Bidders must be at least 18 years of age at the time of the auction.   

Trappers must be present at the auction and will be required to make full payment at that time by check or money order.  Horicon National Wildlife Refuge and DNR reserve the right to reject any or all bids.  Please contact Chris Cole, DNR Wildlife Technician at (920) 485-3004 or Diane Kitchen, USFWS Assistant Manager (920) 387-2658 Ext.12 if you would like to obtain bidding conditions, trapping rules and regulations, or any other information for Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Area or Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, respectively.  

Trapping season shortened at Tower Ridge (April 2 08)

By Andrew Dowd - Leader-Telegram staff - Serving Eau Claire, WI and the Chippewa Valley Since 1881

New trapping restrictions for 750 acres of public land in the town of Seymour passed the Eau Claire County Board Wednesday night.

The board voted 27-1 for the partial ban for Tower Ridge Recreation Area and some surrounding county forest land that shortens the trapping season to just six weeks - Nov. 1 through Dec. 15.

"Due to the fact that Tower Ridge has a lot of people going through it ... it was kind of a compromise both parties could live with," said Pat LaVelle, chairman of the county's Parks and Forest Committee.

A complete trapping ban had initially been proposed for all public land in Seymour in late autumn by dog owners who had run-ins with traps.

Kathy Michels, a Seymour resident who initially proposed the ban, said she's pleased with the compromise and was assured by LaVelle that she could approach the county next winter if there are conflicts with dogs and traps.

Fellow Seymour resident and ban supporter Mary Joy St. Aubin said she hoped for a more sweeping ban that would prohibit the use of body-grip traps, like the one that killed her springer spaniel Bart on Nov. 12. Her dog died on private land near the recreation area and another dog had its jaw severely injured in a similar trap on private land.

John Dunn, area wildlife supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, defended the use of the "killer traps" because they are considered a more humane way to kill.

"But in this particular case it did not catch the animal the way it was intended," he said.

Some County Board members tried to ban the use of body-grip traps in Tower Ridge.

"In recognition of the growing public use across the county of this area I would like to see us prohibit the most dangerous traps," County Board member Will Fantle said.

However the amendment to ban body-grip traps failed in a 17-10 vote.

Instead, the county's adopted policy allows use of the body-grip traps - commonly known by the brand name Conibear - only when they are partially submerged in water or at least five feet above the ground.

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 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
 

April 15, 2007                         Roy Worthy Sebald


 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!

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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.

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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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