[Humptulips]

[Snowbrushy]

[Humptulips]

Yes trappers care about furbearers. Washington State Trappers Association did some lobbying for fisher reintroduction back in the early 90s. Trouble was we did not have any or at least enough money to jump start the whole thing so we kind of got the cold shoulder on the deal. Our biggest concern with the fisher reintroduction has been what effect it would have on marten on the OP. Marten on the Op are not doing well and I don't think anyone has ever satisfactorily answered why. Back east, fisher have an adverse impact on marten when they have reentered an area. We would have preferred for the fisher reintroduction to have started in the Cascades where the marten are not under such stress. Eventually yes we would like to have fisher recovered enough to have a season. Lately I have been trying to get someone to look into the coastal mountain beaver population. They are a key food source for predators and trappers are reporting their numbers are way way down. Nobody seems to care except us. Maybe hard for you to understand but trappers want to see all furbearers thrive. Well, that is not exactly true. We are not to happy with Opossums and nutria being here.

[Snowbrushy]

[Bedivere]

[NacMacFeegle]

Trapping is a cruel "sport". I appreciate that modern trappers might be environmentally conscious and care about keeping animal populations healthy, but that doesn't make the practice of trapping any less cruel.

[Snowbrushy]

[treeswarper]

I don't consider trapping to be a sport. Maybe a hobby, or a way to make some gas money for walking around in the woods, or a way to get rid of a nuisance animal. Who do you call when a beaver is building a dam blocking off your irrigation pipe inlet? The Disney Corporation?

[contour5]

[Snowbrushy]

[Humptulips]

Well it is more then you would make on welfare if you caught one everyday. Even in area with a good fisher population that is unlikely. Trappers tend to look at more empty traps then ones with something in them. A little off topic but I would like to address Nacs cruelty comment. I could go on for hours about all the research being done to find the most humane traps but I won't. I'll just say here in WA we can only use cage traps for fur trapping. Is that more cruel then many animal welfare groups doing the trap neuter return thing with cats? Perhaps it is because we kill fur bearers we catch? Our society kills a lot of animals intentionally everyday and that is OK to most. Perhaps it is because most furbearers are not harvested for food? Is it worse to kill a goat and toss the hide and head then to kill a skunk in a trap and toss the carcass and sell the hide and head? Is it the act of killing or is it how the animal is killed? Before you say yes think about what a fish goes through to get to your dinner plate. Is it maybe that some animals are just too cute. Rat, nobody cares about them but a fisher, a bobcat, a wolf now that is cruel. Harvest, a lot of people have a problem with that in the connotation of hunting or trapping but that is what it is if you add in sustainability. I try and put any animals down in the best way and really it is probably a better way to go then nature would provide. I've trapped the same area since the winter of '68, '69. Yea there is that sustainability thing again.

[RumiDude]

[Pyrites]

[Malachai Constant]

I saw a mountain beaver in our front yard once a few years ago (5).

[Kim Brown]

They did get the fishers from BC. They did some kind of species studies and determined those from a particular area in Canada have the best traits to survive in Washington state. They had to be trapped at a specific timeframe to accommodate the best time to be released here, after poking, proding, tagging, etc.