Hello Trappers, 

As of the time of this writing, the end of the legislative session is only two weeks away. This is the first time in years that there hasn’t been a single anti-trapping bill introduced. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get all of the things passed that we wanted, but at least we weren’t fighting for our lives like the last few years. Because of the democrats holding out at the beginning, the House of Representatives were running behind. So, they prioritized their bills, and the trapping bill we wanted to see passed (HF275/SF277) never even got a hearing. For those unfamiliar with HF275, it would have given us a three day check on snares, dog-proof raccoon traps would be allowed at the water line the day land trapping opens, opening day start time would be moved to sunrise instead of the current 9:00 a.m., and would remove the time (10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.) when you currently can’t tend traps. We still have the possibility of getting dog-proofs legal near water on the land opener and the sunrise opener in another bill. The problem with the other two provisions of the bill is that the DNR is against them. That makes it difficult to put all four provisions in an omnibus bill, because the bill authors don’t want to take the chance of the whole bill getting voted down. The DNR has a lot of pull on the environmental bills.

 I don’t understand why the DNR has an issue with a three-day check on snares.  I’ve been told by numerous trappers that if they could have a three-day check on snares, they would cut way back on setting 220s, some even said they would go totally to snares and never set a 220 again. It would certainly save some incidental fishers from being caught after that season closes. Because of the height of the set snares, most fishers, especially females, would go under. It would also likely be safer for dogs. We will work on getting HF275/SF277 passed next year when the legislators have more time. Representative Josh Heintzeman is the chief author of HF275, and he’s the chairman of the House Environmental Committee, so we at least stand a good chance of at least getting a hearing next year. 

Hope to see you at the summer convention!

Randy Goldenman