Game Commission wants more sportsmen to trap

Charles Beamer, 51, reflects with his guide Jack Manack, after taking this 6x7 bull in management area 7 Tuesday. The bull was hanging in the lowlands on the opposite side of the Benezette's Branch of the Sinnemahoning River, forcing the hunters to forge the river to find him and worse, forge it on the way back with the bull in a canoe. Beamer was hunting with his dad Charles of Florida and his son, Keith.

With opponents of trapping continuing their media blitz, the Pa. Game Commission (PGC) has issued a defense of the sport, calling it an important wildlife management tool.

In fact, the agency would like to see more people trapping.

Pennsylvania's general trapping season for coyotes, foxes, raccoons, skunks, opossums and weasels opened last month and closes on Feb. 17. Water trappers may begin pursuing mink and muskrats when that season opens Nov. 18; it closes Jan. 6. Beaver season runs from Dec. 26 to March 31.

PGC Executive Director Carl G. Roe said few Pennsylvanians appreciate the important role trappers play. "We depend on trappers and other furtakers to manage populations of coyotes, foxes, beavers, raccoons and skunks,"

Roe said. "Diseases such as rabies and mange, and problems with crop- and property-damage caused by furbearers, have been kept in check."

Sagging fur prices in the 1990s spurred a decline in trapping. Roe said trappers and hunters still annually remove about a quarter million "surplus furbearers" to align populations with the carrying capacity of the habitat.

International market demand for most furs is influenced by fashion and the needs of garment-makers. With recent increases in fur prices, Pennsylvania has seen a corresponding increase in furtaker license sales.

Increasing interest in predator calling, the bobcat seasons and growing coyote populations, along with new opportunities, such as the legalization of cable restraints

for foxes and coyotes, also have encouraged more hunters and trappers.

The PGC reports that mink are thriving and appear to be expanding their populations in the southeast and central regions of the state. Coyotes are stable in the northcentral and northeastern counties, increasing in southeastern and southwestern counties. The red fox and opossum populations are rising statewide.

Trappers are especially important in controlling beaver populations. Left unchecked, beavers will drop shade trees in backyards, flood roads and sometimes adversely affect drinking water.

A new law permits hunters and trappers pursuing coyotes to use bait, mechanical devices and decoys. Coyote-hunting is legal year-'round, including Sundays.