LETTER: Trapping has key role in wildlife management

Flathead Wildlife Inc., Northwest Montana’s oldest sportsmen’s organization, urges Montanans to vote against Initiative 177 to ban trapping on public lands.

I-177 would replace scientific wildlife management with emotion and a ballot box and would have many unintended consequences. I worked for Fish, Wildlife and Parks for 39 years and watched wildlife managers use observations and surveys along with harvest data and trapper observations to set trapping seasons and bag limits as needed. Furbearers are managed conservatively, no one benefits when a species is overharvested. Five states have now banned trapping, but trapping is still needed to manage problem populations, only now it is being done by government trappers.

I managed the Old Steel Bridge Fishing Access on the Flathead River east of Kalispell. Beavers moved in and started dropping mature cottonwoods, eating only the tops and branches. They took trees as far as 50 yards inland, trees needed for shade and to stabilize the streambank. A local Scout troop helped clear a trail, and we cut out 140 downed trees in 1/3 mile. We wrapped select trees with chicken wire but that was not feasible for nearly two miles of streambank. Local trappers didn’t want to trap due to high human use so I had to hire a commercial trapper.

As we walked the site I was amazed at his knowledge, pointing out beaver and otter sign I had missed. I posted the trail closed during trapping, then watched a man read the sign and enter with his unleashed dog. So the trapper agreed to use only water sets and to set at dark and pull at dawn. That doubled the effort and time but after a week he removed five beavers and the problems stopped. But that trapping cost hundreds of dollars I needed to manage the site.

Problems like beavers won’t go away. Fish, Wildlife and Parks estimates the I-177 ban would cost the department $422,000 annually to perform work that trappers now do for free. That is money needed to manage other wildlife species and anti-trappers won’t be paying the bills. There is a public process through FWP to address trapping problems, and trappers have supported adopting trapping setbacks and mandatory trapper education. The board of Flathead Wildlife Inc. urges you to vote against I-177. —Jim Vashro, Kalispell