Team Fur News
Big Yellow Taxi: Conservation, Preservation and Environmentalism
By FUR-FISH-GAME Editor, John D. Taylor
President Theodore Roosevelt and forester and Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot understood what Joni Mitchell meant when she sang, “Don't it always seem to go. That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. They paved paradise, put up a parking lot...”.
Back at the turn of the 20th century, our nation’s leaders were looking at what four centuries of unregulated market gunning and fishing – hunting and fishing, if it can be called that, for food market profit – had done to once bountiful American wildlife and fisheries. There were no game laws then, no hunting or fishing seasons, people simply took whatever they wanted in whatever numbers they wanted year-round.
For example, on the Susquehanna Flats, where the Susquehanna River entered the Chesapeake Bay, ducks, especially canvasbacks, flocked by the thousands to feed on aquatic wild celery beds. At night, when the flocks were tightly rafted together on open water, market gunners quietly paddled into them in what amounted to big kayaks and fired punt guns, essentially mini-cannons, into the birds. The result was hundreds of ducks floating on the water per firing. The birds were collected, plucked and shipped in wooden barrels to Baltimore and Philadelphia food markets and fancy restaurants.
This and other carnage went on day after day, night after night, decimating wildlife. It happened to fish, including shellfish like oysters, as well as deer, elk, pronghorns, turkeys, plumed birds (used in ladies fashionable hats), etc.
There arose a call to stop the carnage. Leaders like President Teddy Roosevelt, U.S. Forestry Division head and Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot, California botanist and zoologist John Muir, New York Zoological Park director William Hornaday, “Forest and Stream” editor George Bird Grinnell and others began organizing movements to stem the tide of this destruction.
Hornaday, for example, hoped to acquire some living bison for his park (it eventually became the Bronx Zoo). Bison herds on North America’s grasslands – this biome stretched from western Ohio to the Rocky Mountains, from Canada to Texas – once numbered 30 to 60 million. In 1867, Hornaday wanted to know how many remained. To find out, he wrote ranchers, Army officers, hunters and others across the West, and arrived at 15 million remaining.
However, those numbers were rapidly diminishing. The U.S. Army’s effort to push native people off the Great Plains resulted in mass slaughter of bison, with trains stopping to let passengers shoot bison and leave the carcasses to rot. Also hide and market gunning, railroads splitting the herd into two groups, and habitat destruction via agriculture took its toll. Hornaday’s supervisor, Smithsonian Museum head, George Brown Goode, believed the herds were well on their way to extinction.
So, in 1886, Hornaday traveled to Montana’s Musselshell region, a final bison stronghold, to collect living bison “specimens,” and to shoot a couple for taxidermy, so people might know what they looked like. (This was common practice at the time.) However, what Hornaday saw prompted him to form the American Bison Society in 1905, a group aiming to keep bison from extinction. As part of this, he collected 40 living bison to try to preserve the species in his zoo.
George Bird Grinnell, an under-appreciated figure, joined Hornaday’s efforts. A Yale graduate, Grinnell spent much time in the Northern Plains in the 1870s with a Peabody Museum expedition to collect fossils. He studied Plains geography, animals and native peoples. As “Forest and Stream” editor he lobbied for protection for bison, decried plume hunting for ladies’ hats and organized the first Audubon Society, the New York Zoological Society and had a hand in establishing Yellowstone National Park. At the same time, he was a ravenous hunter who took part in the Pawnee’s last great buffalo hunt in 1872, and with Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot helped form the Boone and Crockett Club in 1887, dedicated to maintaining wild places and the game that lived there.
Then there’s Pinchot and John Muir.
Pinchot, another Yale man, learned advanced forestry practices in France as a young man. He more or less coined the term conservation, meaning the wise use – emphasis on use for Pinchot – of natural resources like forests.
John Muir’s family emigrated from Scotland to Wisconsin in 1849. Fascinated by the natural world, especially plants, Muir led a “regular” life until an accident in a wagon wheel factory temporarily blinded him. When his sight returned, he saw the world in a “new light,” and set out on a 1,000-mile trek, from Kentucky to Florida, to study plant life. Later, he moved to California, built a cabin along Yosemite Creek, and began exploring the Yosemite region to understand its botany and geology.
Muir saw Yosemite and the Sierra Nevadas as pristine and wanted to preserve them. He especially wanted to keep sheep – “hoofed locusts” – out and began writing about the region. In 1890, this led to Congress approving his idea of creating “national parks,” yet the bill left Yosemite in state control, and California had few rules for Yosemite. In 1892, Muir founded and became president of the Sierra Club, dedicated to creating “national forest reservations.”
Four years later, Muir and Pinchot came together as leaders in the new “conservation” movement, an effort to treat the country’s land, waters and wildlife better. Pinchot’s idea of conservation focused on managing natural resources for long-term sustainable and commercial use – essentially forestry as “tree farming" – without destroying the forest’s viability. Muir valued more esoteric qualities, calling national parks "places for rest, inspiration, and prayers." Both men opposed reckless exploitation of natural resources. But their friendship ended in 1897 when Pinchot supported sheep grazing in forest reserves, and Muir didn’t.
At this point, the conservation movement split in two factions. One followed Muir’s preservation ideas, setting aside places to be untouched. The other adhered to Pinchot’s conservation, wise use of resources.
Both men bent Roosevelt’s ear, president in 1903. Pinchot pushed the U.S. Forestry Division (it became the U.S. Forest Service) forward, allowing for commercial cutting of the nation’s forests. Muir convinced Roosevelt Yosemite should be preserved under federal control. Roosevelt called camping with Muir under the giant Sequoias “...lying in a temple built by no hand of man, a temple grander than any human architect could by any possibility build."
This early 20th century division of concern for the Eden that once was this nation into conservation and preservation movements continues today and grows uglier by the moment. Animal rights people coopt the term “conservationist” when they describe themselves to the media to rail about the so-called evils of hunting, trapping and even fishing. (Yes, there’s a “fishhooks are cruel” contingent.) They are not conservationists, but very misguided preservationists at best.
When the term “environment” entered into the modern lexicon in the 1970s to describe a critter’s surroundings – my office is my work environment; your home is your environment when you’re in it; a whitetail’s creek bottom home range is its environment – even environmentalist got coopted.
An environmentalist in the 1970s was someone who gave a hoot about their environment, including the natural world. Anyone could be an environmentalist if you thought like Iron Eyes Cody, the Indian crying over garbage tossed from a car in a commercial. If you picked up trash from a roadside, didn’t pollute your trout stream by leaving monofilament tangled along its bank, or shot a deer and ate its venison, you were most certainly an environmentalist. Today, politicians and other mind-benders would have people believe that environmentalists are slathering radicals, slinking around, ready to blow up the world, because they hate humanity.
Hooey.
I’m a conservationist who believes that wildlife, especially fish and game species properly managed through science-based sport fishing and hunting regulations, are most certainly a renewable resource that can be wisely used by human beings. At the same time, I’m a preservationist who believes it’s important to keep wild areas wild – especially the Northern Plains grasslands, where mixed grass and shortgrass prairies have declined between 40% and 75% due to development and agriculture; or what’s left of real wilderness in the Rocky Mountains and Alaska; even the tiny wildlife areas, woodlots and creeks in heavily urbanized states. Those places should be temples for the soul, all of nature is if you have the eyes, ears and heart to see it. And I am most definitely a rabid environmentalist. I see quite clearly that a clean, healthy environment – unpolluted air, water and landscapes – is better for everyone, especially for hunting, fishing and trapping, than the alternative.
I think to be these things you must love something in the natural world and then lose it. That happened to me as a kid, when builders tore down “my” pines, a small, planted stand of pines below my folks’ house in a suburban development, to make room for more houses. It continued as I watched Pennsylvania’s upland birds diminish, species by species.
For example, in 1972, my first hunting season, Pennsylvania pheasant hunters bagged 1.2 million roosters, according to Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) figures. That’s South Dakota level hunting today. By the late 1990s, the harvest was barely 250,000 birds, most of them stocked. Habitat loss – urbanization, clean farming, pesticide and herbicide use – gets most of the blame. They called it progress, I said it was a travesty, supplication to greed. York County, Pennsylvania, went from 75% rural in the 1970s to 25% rural just two decades later. The county had two malls in the mid-1970s. By the 1990s, there were seven, along with a slew of industrial parks, and housing developments, condos, all kinds of “growth” popping up. How many malls is enough?
Ruffed grouse, woodcock, even quail went the same way. When I started a passionate pursuit of ruffed grouse in the mid-1980s, I could flush 3.5 to 4 birds per hour in close-to-home coverts. Just 10 years later, I needed to travel three to four hours further out to find maybe, on a good day, two birds per hour. Too many deer eating everything in the forest, lack of plant diversity, fewer timber harvests to create the young forest grouse and woodcock need, were blamed.
No one seemed to care or was willing to fight to keep these resources. In the late 1980s, I tried starting a farmland wildlife conservation group. It shattered but later morphed into a Pheasants Forever chapter. Even among local Ruffed Grouse Society chapter members, no one but me actually hunted grouse or cared about the decline.
Today, it’s worse. The Audubon Society hates bird hunters. Hunters loathe the antis despite the fact that some hunters are absolute jerks in the field. The Sierra Club wants to lock down every wild space, yet the world still relies on oil and natural gas. Anyone who wears the environmentalist tag is subject to scorn.
When the efforts people like Roosevelt, Pinchot, Muir, Hornaday and Grinnell took root, wildlife success stories abounded. In 1900, research says 500,000 whitetails remained in North America. Today there’s more than 34 million whitetails. Same for elk, 41,000 in 1900 to more than a million today; wild turkeys, 100,000 to more than 7 million; pronghorns, 12,000 to more than a million. Conservation works. But we’ve forgotten that.
Maybe, someday, if things get bad enough, we can all – hunters, anglers, trappers, bird watchers, antis, industrialists, mall lovers, everyone – come together to protect what’s left of the natural world. As Joni Mitchell sang, “Don't it always seem to go. That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. They paved paradise, put up a parking lot...”
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifford_Pinchot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Temple_Hornaday
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bird_Grinnell
“An American Crusade for Wildlife,” James B. Trefethen, 1975, Boone and Crockett Club
Ohio Game Wardens Bust Poachers
Ohio game wardens busted whitetail deer poachers and anglers catching over their limit recently. Photo: Rajas Chitnis/Unsplash
Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife’s law enforcement has been busy lately, busting outdoor crooks. Officers assigned to Lake Erie recently closed two cases where anglers unlawfully took more than the legal daily limit of six walleyes, 15 inches in length minimum. In December 2024, four wildlife investigators discovered anglers at the Huron Fishing Access Boat Launch in Erie County were “double tripping,” taking more than six fish per day in separate trips on Lake Erie. In total, 10 anglers were charged.
In the first court case, four Ohioans were charged for taking more than the daily limit on Lake Erie. Each was found guilty, paid $210 in fines and court costs. Six additional anglers from Michigan were charged for doing likewise. Each was ordered to pay $310 in fines and court costs. Two defendants had previous charges for taking more than the legal limit of walleye on Lake Erie. Lake Erie fishing regulations are available in the 2025-26 Ohio fishing regulations booklet, online at wildohio.gov. Deer poachers also got caught. Two Mississippi men pleaded guilty to multiple wildlife violations after poaching whitetails in southeast Ohio. They were ordered to pay a combined $15,054 in restitution. Dawson Brown, of Poplarville, Mississippi, pleaded guilty to seven charges related to unlawfully taking whitetail deer, including hunting with a motor vehicle, hunting deer with a firearm during the archery season, hunting outside legal shooting hours, possessing untagged deer parts, hunting without a nonresident hunting license or a deer permit and spotlighting. Two of the antlers came from trophy deer he killed scored 166-2/8 and 154-5/8. Brown was ordered to pay $13,169.37 in restitution and $865 in fines and court costs, serve three years of probation, and forfeit his hunting privileges in Ohio for three years. He was sentenced to 390 days in jail, with all but 30 days suspended. Jase D. Smith, 24, from the same town, also pleaded guilty to four charges including hunting without permission, without a nonresident deer permit and a nonresident license and failing to check deer. He was ordered to pay $1,885 in restitution and $249.25 in fines and court costs, serve 30 days in jail, and forfeit his Ohio hunting privileges for three years. Smith also pleaded guilty to possession of untagged deer parts and was ordered to pay $605 in fines and court costs, complete three years of probation and had his hunting privileges revoked. Both men were entered into the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact, which recognizes and duplicates the suspension of hunting, fishing and trapping licenses in member states.
A third man, Christopher M. Waters, of Loris, South Carolina, pleaded guilty to 12 deer and wild turkey hunting violations in Knox County, including hunting without a license or a deer permit, possessing a deer and a turkey without a valid game check confirmation number, spotlighting, hunting deer after hours and with a motor vehicle and hunting with a rifle other than straight-walled cartridge. He was ordered to pay $4,110.67 in restitution and $300 in fines, forfeited hunting implements, and had his hunting license revoked for three years. Two others also pleaded guilty to multiple violations in the same case. Cody Muncie, of Howard, Ohio pleaded guilty to five counts of wildlife law violations and was ordered to pay $5,741.25 in restitution, $200 in fines, forfeited all evidence and had his hunting license revoked for two years. And Douglas Hartman, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, pleaded guilty to two counts of failure to game check a deer, one count of hunting deer without a permit, and one count of hunting turkeys without a permit. He was ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution and $200 in fines, forfeited all evidence, and had his hunting license revoked for two years. See a wildlife violation in Ohio? Call 1-800-POACHER (1-800-762-2437). Reports are anonymous. Information that results in a conviction of a wildlife crime may result in a reward.
IDNR Urges Safe Boating
IDNR wants all boaters to be safe on the water this summer and urges boaters to wear life jackets and take a boating safety course. Photo: Dana Sarsenbekova/Unsplash
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and Illinois Conservation Police are urging people to wear life jackets anytime they're on the water and to only operate boats while sober. Safety is a shared responsibility IDNR says. Every boater plays a vital role in creating a secure and enjoyable environment on the water. Understanding and adhering to boating regulations such as navigation rules, safety equipment requirements, designated no-wake zones and staying informed about weather conditions are essential for all who enjoy the state's waterways. In 2024, 63 reportable boating accidents took place on Illinois waters, resulting in 15 fatalities and 32 injuries, IDNR says. Most boating accidents occur between noon and 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays between June and August. Conditions are usually clear with good visibility, light winds, and calm water. Most accidents involve operators between the ages of 20 and 40 who have more than 100 hours of boating experience but little or no classroom boating safety instruction. They also usually involve open motorboats cruising in a careless or reckless manner, colliding with another boat. Also, in 2024, IDNR officers arrested 84 boaters for OUI, an 11% increase from 2023. Four of 2024’s 15 boating-related fatalities involved alcohol or drug impairment. IDNR offers free boating safety courses and encourages all boaters to take a safety course. Anyone born on or after January 1, 1998, must pass a course and have a valid Boating Safety Certificate to operate a motorboat more than 10 horsepower. The courses are free and available throughout Illinois. Visit https://dnr2.illinois.gov/SafetyEd/SafetyEdClassByCounty.
Pope And Young Honors Ohio Game Wardens
Ohio Wildlife Officers Isaiah Gifford (left) and Matt Roberts (right) received the Pope and Young Club’s Wildlife Law Enforcement Officer Award.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife’s Officers Isaiah Gifford and Matt Roberts each received the national Pope and Young Club’s Wildlife Law Enforcement Officer Award for their work on a whitetail deer poaching investigation. Gifford and Roberts were the first officers from Ohio to receive this award, and the first co-recipients. Every two years, Pope and Young honors wildlife law enforcement officers for outstanding work regarding big game violations. Gifford and Roberts were selected for bringing justice to Christopher J. Alexander, of Wilmington, Ohio, for unlawfully shooting a trophy buck in 2023. Gifford and Roberts worked diligently to uncover evidence that resulted in his conviction. Alexander pleaded guilty in Clinton County Common Pleas Court to 14 counts related to the incident. He was sentenced to pay the maximum restitution for the 18-point trophy buck, $35,071.73, the largest restitution value for a single white-tailed deer in Ohio’s history. Gifford, 26, of Zanesville, has been assigned to Clinton County since 2023. Roberts, 44, of Greenfield, has been assigned to Highland County since 2022.
Minnesota Elk Hunting
Minnesota resident can apply for one of four elk hunting licenses this fall. Photo: Meredith Fontana/Unsplash
Hunters have through Thursday, July 3, to apply for one of four elk licenses offered this year by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR). MDNR is reducing elk tags this year to make sure the state’s elk population continue to thrive. Lower-than-expected elk numbers were counted during aerial flights, MDNR elk coordinator Kelsie LaSharr said. Minnesota has three recognized elk herds in the state’s northwest region: Grygla, Kittson Central and Caribou-Vita. The Grygla and Kittson Central zones are closed to state-licensed elk hunters this year. However, hunters can apply for one of two Caribou-Vita (Zone 30) seasons: Two licenses are available to harvest either a bull or antlerless elk in the during the A season, September 13 - 21. And two licenses are available for antlerless elk in the B season, September 27 - October 5. This is a once-in-a-lifetime hunt for Minnesota residents. Successful applicants who choose not to purchase a permit will be eligible for future elk hunts and receive an application point towards their 10-year application history preference. Given the reduction in available state permits this year, no tags will be available for the 10-year application history pool or for eligible agricultural landowners who reside within elk range. Hunters must select a season and can apply individually or in parties of two at any license agent, online (mndnr.gov/buyalicense) or by telephone at 888-665-4236. There’s a nonrefundable application fee of $5, and total license cost is $288. Successful hunters must present the animal within 24 hours of harvest for registration and collection of biological samples to screen for diseases or other health-related issues. Visit mndnr.gov/hunting/elk.
Utah Residents Busted for Nevada Residency Fraud, Illegal Hunting
Utah residents tried to get away with shooting a big 5 x 4 mule deer posing as Nevada residents but were caught and now face serious penalties. Photo: Acton Crawford/Unsplash
Following an extensive investigation, two individuals were convicted of multiple wildlife violations, including residency fraud and unlawful hunting, in connection with poaching a mule deer on the Utah-Nevada border, in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. In December of 2022, Utah Division of Natural Resources (UDNR) officers provided the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) with a tip regarding a Utah resident who illegally harvested a large 5 x 4 mule deer in Nevada using a fake resident hunting tag. Investigators confirmed the person was a Utah resident, ineligible for the resident tag. Residency fraud is becoming a real problem, according to John Anderson, NDOW game warden. In the past, just a handful of these cases took place, but recently numbers have grown. Investigation showed the fraudulent application and tag purchases were coordinated by the individual’s spouse. The primary suspect pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting unlawful possession, a gross misdemeanor, resulting in a five-year hunting privileges suspension. The other individual received a suspended jail sentence of 60 days, a 12-month probation period, lost 36 bonus points, and a five-year hunting privileges suspension. The pair must pay a penalty of nearly $5,000. Under the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact (IWVC) both individuals will be unable to purchase any license in participating states. To report Nevada wildlife crime, call (800) 992-3030 or visit www.ndow.org.
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Watch for the ad appearing in our July, August, or September 2025 issues, follow the instructions, and you'll be entered to be the sole winner of all these prizes. (Click on the above photo to see more details about each prize.) There will also be 10 runner-up prize winners of a 100th Anniversary FUR-FISH-GAME Metal Tack Sign. No electronic entries will be accepted. One entry per person. Prizes provided by Redding Reloading, FOXPRO, Mossberg, Black Hills Ammunition, Magnum Research, DR Power Equipment, Lenon Lures, Kenetrek, Duke Traps, Montana Canvas, Iosso Products, U Outdoors, and Wildlife Research Center.
Rabies Incidents A Reminder To Keep Pets Vaccinated
Increasing rabies-related incidents should encourage the public to protect themselves and their pets against the disease. Photo: Nikolay Tchaouchev/Unsplash
The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) reminds the public to protect themselves and their pets by keeping a safe distance from animals that appear aggressive or lack a fear of humans. An increasing number of rabies-related incidents have been reported across Arizona. The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) indicated that foxes and skunks were the most common species to have tested positive for rabies between January and March 2025. Pets such as dogs and cats, as well as livestock such as horses, should be vaccinated regularly against rabies. In addition, dogs should be on leashes when outdoors and a veterinarian consulted if any domestic animals are injured by wildlife. Unvaccinated animals exposed to wildlife with rabies must undergo a four-month quarantine, and vaccinated animals need to be quarantined for 45 days. In Arizona, the principal rabies hosts are bats, skunks and foxes. When rabies activity within these animal groups increases, rabies can impact other mammals, such as bobcats, coyotes, javelina, cats, dogs, horses or cows. To report an animal bite, or an animal acting suspicious, call AGFD at (623) 236-7201 or visit www.azdhs.gov/preparedness/epidemiology-disease-control/rabies/
WDNR Seeks Hunters With Skills To Teach Others
Youth Hunts for wild turkey, white-tailed deer and waterfowl offer valuable experience and time to safely hunt. Photo: Michiel Annaert/Unsplash
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is looking for individuals to volunteer to help others enjoy safe and ethical hunts. There are fun options to share your hunting expertise, enthusiasm and stories with novices of all ages who are interested in hunting. You could become a mentor, lead a learn-to-hunt outing or hold a workshop to teach new hunters how to cook meat from harvested deer. Opportunities include:
• Mentor A Novice – Those who prefer a one-on-one opportunity might consider becoming a mentor. This program allows novice hunters to hunt within arm’s reach of a qualified mentor without first completing a Hunter Education course.
• Classroom Instructor - Learn to Hunt volunteer instructors teach novices in the classroom, coupled with time in the field, followed by a hunt with a mentor. Local groups usually host this program.
• Hunter Education – This effort covers ways to help your community by teaching injury-prevention and lifesaving actions while positively influencing the attitudes and actions of other resource users.
• Outdoor Skills Workshop – These offer deer-processing skills, safe firearm handling techniques, shooting basics and tips for cooking wild game.
• Special Youth Hunts - Sharing a safe turkey, whitetail or waterfowl experience outside the normal hunting seasons with residents and non-residents ages 15 years and younger are welcome.
For more information on all these opportunities, contact Emily Iehl at Emily.Iehl@wisconsin.gov or Logan Planer at Logan.Planer@wisconsin.gov.
Research Identifies Millions of Target Shooters
Some 73 million Americans express interest in target shooting but some hesitate to visit a range or buy a firearm are concerns about firearm safety. Photo: Remedy/Unsplash
Research recently released by the Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation (OSCF) aims to better understand how to boost future participation in recreational target shooting. The report, “Welcome New Shooters: Tactics to Win Participation from Under-Served Communities,” explains that 73 million Americans have expressed an interest in target shooting, then lists what keeps these people from trying. The report found that people outside the traditional white male demographic have a strong interest in target shooting. More importantly, the growth in firearm ownership among these audiences since 2020 would suggest more activity, but the report says the primary reason these communities hesitate to visit a range or buy a firearm are concerns about firearm safety. "It doesn’t matter what a person looks like, motivations for target shooting are the same,” said researcher Rob Southwick. “Many potential participants did not grow up in households or communities exposed to recreational shooting. These people represent growth in target shooting if they are reassured from the very first contact that they can do so in a controlled, safe and welcoming environment." The OSCF study provides a roadmap for organizations to actively engage underrepresented audiences. This includes delivering consistent messaging and imagery that highlight safety procedures and requirements, from the initial promotion until the individual arrives at the range for the first time. The object is to make shooting sports more accessible and welcoming for all. The “Welcome New Shooters” project was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and jointly administered by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. For the report, visit https://www.outdoorstewards.org/welcome-new-shooters/
Missouri Proposes Price Adjustments For 2026 Permits
The Missouri Department of Conservation intends to hike non-resident and resident hunting permit prices in 2026 to keep them in line with surrounding states. Some 10,000 non-residents chase Missouri turkeys annually. Photo: Ash Farz/Unsplash
Missouri is home to more than 1 million anglers, 500,000 hunters, and several thousand trappers. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) issues nearly 2.6 million hunting, fishing and trapping permits each year. To keep pace with continually rising costs of goods and services, MDC is proposing increases for 2026 to many nonresident, resident and commercial permit prices. This includes significant increases to nonresident permits to bring Missouri permit prices more in line with surrounding states, MDC says. For example, MDC wants a new nonresident migratory bird permit to be $60, and a new nonresident trout permit at a proposed price of $40. Non-resident deer and turkey tags would also increase. Additional revenue from the increases will help MDC maintain and improve its nationally recognized programs and services for hunters, anglers, wildlife watchers, and others. This will also help MDC cover rising costs of maintaining infrastructure. About 43,000 nonresidents hunt deer, 10,000 nonresidents hunt spring turkeys and 165,000 nonresidents fish in Missouri annually. More than 400,000 Missourians hunt deer or turkeys and more than a million fish annually. Opinion surveys and public feedback showed Missourians generally supported raising nonresident hunting permits. For more details about proposed fee increases, visit https://mdc.mo.gov/permits.
IDNR Monitoring Black Bear Sighting
Recent black bear sightings in southwestern Illinois represent a once in a lifetime chance to see a bear, yet state officials urge caution around black bears. Photo: Pete Nuij/Unsplash
Bear sightings in Illinois are rare but not unprecedented during summer. However, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has been monitoring recent black bear sightings in southwestern Illinois. The bear was first observed on a Monday in St. Clair County. An IDNR district wildlife biologist confirmed the sighting on Tuesday, and the animal was observed again Wednesday and Thursday, still in St. Clair County. The bear has had no interaction with humans, but damaged bee hives on private property. IDNR reminds residents that although black bear sightings in Illinois are rare, animals from neighboring Missouri and Wisconsin cross into Illinois. Past confirmed sightings were located in Jo Daviess, Lake, Saline, Pope, Williamson and Jackson counties. IDNR encourages people to avoid direct encounters with bears and to check their property for food sources that could attract bears in the area. Bears follow their powerful noses to food sources and can scent food from more than a mile away. Through learned behavior, bears often investigate anything that may yield a food reward – bird feeders, barbeque grills, garbage cans, dog food – and will likely return to feed. Prevention is key. Seeing a bear may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and their presence shouldn’t be perceived as a threat. Still, IDNR says it’s important to remember bears are wild animals and should be treated as such. IDNR urges the public to follow BearWise basics. Visit bearwise.org/six-bearwise-basics.
Montana Grizzly Killed By Shed Hunter
Montana is grizzly bear country and outdoor people should practice BearAware advice and be prepared for grizzly encounters. Photo: Dear Sunflower/Unsplash
Recently, a man hunting shed antlers on a brushy hillside in north-central Montana, near Dupuyer, saw a grizzly bear. As he left the area, the bear charged him at close range, so he shot and killed the bear. Fortunately, the man was not injured. The bear was an adult female in good condition with no history of conflict and was estimated to be 13 years old and weighed about 250 pounds. Montana is bear country, and grizzly populations are becoming denser and more widespread across the state, increasing the likelihood that people will encounter grizzlies in more places each year. Avoiding bear conflicts is easier than dealing with conflicts, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP) says. Some precautions to help anyone outdoors avoid negative bear encounters include: Carry bear spray and be prepared to use it immediately. Travel in groups and make casual noise, to alert bears to your presence. Stay away from animal carcasses. Keep garbage, bird feeders, pet food and other attractants secured. And if you encounter a bear, never approach it. Leave the area when it is safe to do so. Although grizzlies have reached recovery levels in the Northern Continental Divide and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystems, grizzlies in the lower 48 states are still listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. For more information and resources on bear safety, visit fwp.mt.gov/conservation/wildlife-management/bear.
Washington Considers Lethal Wolf Removal
Due to livestock depredations where four calves were injured, one killed by wolves, the state considered lethal removal in the Sherman wolf pack in northeastern Washington. Photo: Milo Weiler/Unslpash
In May, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) considered lethal removal in the Sherman wolf pack in northeast Washington in an effort to change pack behavior. Since mid-May WDFW investigated four confirmed calf injuries and one confirmed calf kill attributed to the Sherman pack, losses that impacted a Ferry County rancher. WDFW protocol permits lethal removal when there are at least three depredation events attributed to a wolf pack within a 30-day rolling window, or at least four depredation events within a 10-month rolling window. Following a May 15 investigation of the depredations, and one wolf being killed by the rancher after it chased a cow, WDFW’s Director decided to evaluate the situation, see if a depredation pattern in pack behavior was disrupted. A May 26 depredation occurred despite the rancher using range riders in the area every other day, calving away from high-use wolf areas and removing sick or injured livestock from the range. On May 30, WDFW Director Kelly Susewind decided against lethal removal because while the first three incidents were confirmed Sherman wolf pack depredation, there was some ambiguity about which animals – possibly another overlapping wolf pack –committed the May 26 depredation. Lethal removal may be considered again if another depredation occurs.
Protect Livestock, Poultry From Black Bears
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission wants to help livestock and poultry raisers protect their stock from black bear depredation. Photo: Geoff Brooks/Unsplash
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) wants to provide guidance to livestock and poultry raisers on methods to protect their animals from becoming prey for black bears. While black bears tend to consume a mostly plant-based diet and are attracted to grain and corn livestock feed, they are omnivorous opportunists and will eat eggs, small livestock like chickens and rabbits and larger animals, including goats, miniature ponies and alpacas. Unprotected livestock, eggs and feed are easy pickings for a hungry bear. Raising livestock of any species in bear country requires BearWise husbandry practices, even for small-scale, backyard operations. NCWRC BearWise Coordinator Ashley Hobbs says the most common call she gets is people reporting bears getting into goat herds or chicken coops. To keep bears from accessing livestock and livestock feed, it’s important to properly secure attractants. Bears are quick learners and highly food motivated. If they discover an easy food source, like a chicken coop, they will return and visit others, NCWRC bear biologist Jenna Malzhan noted. Both wildlifers recommended livestock and poultry owners in bear country store livestock and pet feed in bear-resistant containers, a shed or building. Livestock pens and bee hives should be 50 yards minimum from wooded areas. Livestock should be confined in buildings and pens, especially during lambing or calving seasons. Remove carcasses and dispose of them by rendering or deep burial. Install electric fencing or own a guard animal because standard chicken and rabbit coops won’t keep a determined bear out. Learn more at BearWise.org or contact NCWRC’s Wildlife Helpline at (866) 318-2401.
Fur Pockets
100th Anniversary Article from February 1926
by Floyd V. Ames
When a sourdough wanders away from his stamping grounds in the back country and gets out where folks are plentiful and dogs and cats more numerous still, he is apt to find, if he wishes to trap, that he must go at the business from a different angle than the one he has been in the habit of working from. Trapping is like other occupations or like a business. There are certain elements that enter into it which can be forecasted, planned out and provided for. Then there is the element of chance, a factor that can cause consternation, but without which trapping would become an uninteresting and disagreeable job.
Out in the sticks, where one has, as a rule, a considerable slice of terra firma all to oneself, all there is to do is plan traplines that will cover the most and best of the country with the greatest economy of effort. If the trapper knows his stuff, there is no other factor but bad weather to prevent success.
Down in the farming regions this a different proposition. There are all of the idiosyncrasies of weather that the backwoodsman finds, and a number of other disturbing factors. To begin with, it is well-nigh out of the question to run a trap line such as the wilderness trapper uses. As a rule, there is no place to run it. Then there are such varmints as are commonly called Sneakums (trap thieves), and posted lands, stray dogs and cats and other disturbing things, none of which go to fill up the trapper's cup of joy.
There is one method of trapping which will bring one considerable success in a settled country. Raymond Spears, in his writings of life along the Mississippi, often spoke of fur pockets. He had reference to localities where fur was more plentiful than in other places.
For me, a "fur pocket" is not a locality where fur is to be found, but as definite places or spots where fur animals can be trapped to the best advantage. I’ve found this to be true in the wilderness as well as in settled regions. There are spots which, for certain natural causes, will produce more results in pelts than four times the number of traps set up and down creeks and rivers or over the face of the country.
It requires experience or trapping sense to find these pockets, although anyone will strike them at times by chance or accident.
Where trap thieves are a pest, pocket trapping is about the only method worth trying at all. I have had traps set on creeks that were followed daily by other trappers, have caught as much and often more than any of them, and I dare say they never knew the traps were there. You may lose traps and fur now and then anyway, but the loss is a small percent of what you’d suffer if you tried to run an extensive line, and the catch will be as large or larger.
The proper time to locate fur pockets is during the summer and early fall. A fishing trip on lake or stream, if used to advantage, will pay dividends later on. There are certain things that mean a whole lot to a person steeped in the trapper's ways. These things are passed unnoticed by most people, but a trapper always notes them and records them in his mind for future use. Whether he ever intends to trap again or not, a man who has once trapped is always on the lookout for sign.
I never wander through fur country that I don't notice everything about me that denotes the presence of fur animals or game. I may know I'll never be back there again, but it's the trapper instinct cropping out.
If you can read fur sign, it won’t be a hard to find these super-sets, or fur pockets. Bear in mind the characteristics of the various animals you hope to catch. Also, it will be possible to make two sets on 5 miles of creek and catch as much as 20 traps scattered out. One will need fewer traps, less bait, will save a lot of grief and labor, and make the lot of the Sneakem tribe much harder.
We all know that mink and weasel are great travelers, skunk and coon are only a little less given to wandering, and even muskrats do quite a bit of migrating at times. If one can find a place where all of these wanderers will pass by or be apt to pass in their travels, he has a fur pocket.
Mink, while traveling as a general thing, stay very close to the water. But they do at times cut across lots, so to be sure of them, choose a place they are not apt to miss. In the Lake Superior woods, I found that mink might leave the streams at times, but they almost never missed prowling through the logs of the old logging dams. On a smaller stream, a pile of drift seems to have the same fascination. Coons and skunks will use the drift to cross on.
In setting traps at such a place, care should be used that if any of these animals come by, a trap will be there for them. Mink and coons can be caught easily enough at the same set, particularly if fish is the bait used. Skunks, however, don't take readily to fish or to the water. If you have cause to believe the crossing is used by skunks, set for them. A bait set in the water, a cubby set among the drift or in the bank, and a trail set to pinch the toes of anything crossing on the drift, and one is reasonably certain of results. A broken tile or the outlet of a tile has considerable attraction, also. Few fur animals will pass near without giving it the once over.
The intersection of two brush-grown fence lines is often a hangout for furbearers, and I have often noticed some particular culvert that every animal in the neighborhood went through at some time or other. That doesn't mean every culvert or fence corner is a fur pocket. They are not. If furbearers frequented all such places there wouldn't be any pockets.
I have just used these places as examples. This is a big country, and it differs in formation and contour. Animal nature, however, is the same. Whatever the nature of the country, if there are furbearers there, one will find these spots where their trails converge, and where a trap or two placed correctly will bring the most when the returns are added up.
UPCOMING EVENTS
National Trappers Association National Convention
Don't miss the 66th Annual NTA Convention July 17-19, at Rocking ham County Fairgrounds in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Kid's Cave, tons of trapping demos, over 80 exhibitors (including FUR-FISH-GAME Magazine). For more info: www.nationaltrappers.com
Upper Peninsula Trappers’ Association
The Upper Peninsula Trappers’ Association will hold its U.P. Trappers’ Convention and Outdoor Show July 11 and 12, in Escanaba, Michigan, at the U.P. State Fairgrounds. Camping and food will be available on the fairgrounds. Activities include demos, mini raffles, can raffles and a new “kids cave.” Contact Roy Dahlgren (906) 399-1960 or email trapperroy@outlook.com, and visit www.uptrappers.com for more information.
New England Trappers
The New England Trappers (NET) will hold their NET Weekend August 14 - 16 in Bethel, Maine. Contact Neil Olson (207) 8755765 or (207) 7491179 for more information.
Idaho Trappers’ Association
The Idaho Trappers’ Association (ITA) will hold its annual Kids’ Camp August 8-9 in Fairfield, Idaho. Also, ITA, in conjunction with the National Trappers’ Association, will hold their annual banquet September 6, at the Shoshone Bannock Casino, in Fort Hall, Idaho. For more information, contact Missy Kramer at (775) 401-0717.
Pennsylvania Trappers’ Association
The Pennsylvania Trappers’ Association’s District 10 Fall Convention will be held September 12 and 13, at the West End Fairgrounds, in Gilbert, Pennsylvania. For convention information, contact Bob (610) 759-9203. Also, a cable restraint class will be held September 13, during the convention. Pre-registration is required for the class, contact the Pennsylvania Game Commission (717) 787-7015 or visit www.pgc.pa.gov.
West Virginia Trappers’ Association
The West Virginia Trappers Association (WVTA) will hold its annual convention September 19 and 20, at the Gilmer County Recreation Center, located at 1365 Sycamore Run Road, in Glenville, West Virginia. Gates open at 9 a.m. Sept. 19, and 8 a.m. Sept. 20 with demos and seminars. Free Trappers Education Classes for all ages is available Vendors will be present both days. WVTA will also be host the National Trappers’ Association Southeastern Regional Convention, October 10 - 11, at the same location. Contact Jeremiah at 3049163329 or visit www.wvtrappers.com
Kansas Fur Harvesters Association
The Kansas Fur Harvesters Association will hold their Fall Rendezvous October 3 and 4 in Belleville, Kansas, at 910 O Street, the crossroads of Highway 36 and 81. Admission is free, and the event includes vendors, food, a trap setting contest, a women’s skillet toss and a white elephant sale on Saturday. Contact Eldon Dunstan (785) 243-4872 (evenings) or email Dunstanconst@gmail.com.
Texas Trappers and Fur Hunters Association
The Texas Trappers and Fur Hunters Association TFHA will host a fall rendezvous October 17 – 18, at the Gatesville Civic Center, 301 Veteran's Memorial Loop, in Gatesville, Texas. For more information, visit www.ttfha.com.
Coming in August
Features
• Bridges, Beagles and Boulders - Drew Haupt shares the tender tale of how his son swapped a rock for a puppy and became a proud beagle owner.
• Buried Food Cache Set - John Murray tells how to make a new and improved version of this fox catching set.
• Fatal Fluke Times Two - When the same scenario plays out with two arrow shots, Heath Curtis learns about a quirk in whitetail physiology.
• Mikey The Bell Mare - Mike Powell shares the life of his favorite Colorado elk hunting pack horse, a mare named Mikey.
• Centerpin Smallmouths - Phil Goes finds a way to get his sons off the computer and outdoors to fish for smallmouths using centerpin rigs.
• Fur... and Food - Jefffrey Miller tells how to utilize furbearers to the fullest extent, for both fur and for the table.
Other Stories
• Wolves of the Birchwood, Chapter 12
• Saddle Hunting Basics – Jake Unger looks at how to use “saddles,” portable tree climbing rigs, in archery hunting
• Walleyes And Friendship – Richy Harrod, his brother Ron, and two other brothers catch up on old times and catch walleyes in Banks Lake in Washington state.
• Squirrel Sniper – Trapping columnist Hal Sullivan shares his techniques for sniping squirrels
• Catching The Trapping Bug – Jesse Zimmerman shares the ups and downs of how he got into trapping.
• After The Shot: Go Or Stay? – Jack Wentzel, an experienced big game recovery tracker who uses two Labs to find downed big game, busts some myths about what mortally wounded big game will or won’t do after the shot.
• From a Dove Hunter’s Notebook (100th Anniversary Article) – Carlos Vinson shares how dove hunters in the 1940s hunted the harbingers of autumn, in a reprint of a February of 1943 article.
• The Last Trip – Stanford Fleming, Jr. shares another touching father-son tale about growing older and the memories formed over the years from shared outdoor experiences.
End of the Line Photo of the Month
Steve Kelley, Augur Pond, New York
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