President — Shawn Johnson, 6122 McQuade Road, Duluth, Mn 55804; phone: 218.525.4970; e-mail: mcquaderoadfur@msn.com
Vice President — Dave D’Aigle, 29765 Holly St NW, Isanti, MN 55040
Secretary — Linda Salo, 5927 McNiven Road, Chisholm, MN 55719; e-mail: linda.salo@mwcradio.com
Treasurer — Tricia Coons, 403 Wood Ave., Bemidji, MN 56601; phone: 218-444-8244; e-mail: MTATrish@paulbunyan.net
Membership Coordinator — Kathy Peterson, 57124 Cty Rd., Northhome, MN 56661; phone: 218-659-4535; e-mail: kpeterso@paulbunyan.net
Director of Trapper Education — Deb Offerdahl, 14788 Lynx Rd., Milaca, MN 56353; phone: 320-983-6023
Mandatory Trappers Education Director — Shawn Johnson, 6122 McQuade Road, Duluth, MN 55804; phone: 218-525-4970; e-mail: mcquaderoadfur@msn.com
Membership Options:
• Individual membership including subscription to Trapper & Predator Caller — $25
• Junior (under 16) with subscription — $15
• Lifetime membership with subscription — $400
Complete membership application on first page of association section and send dues to:
MTA, Membership Coordinator
Kathy Peterson
57124 Cty Rd., Northhome, MN 56661
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Greetings All,
I’m keeping this short but sweet as my Newsletter deadline is also approaching and I’ll have much more to say at that time.
The Non- Resident Trapping Survey poll has been officially tabulated just prior to the September 24 Board of Directors Meeting. A small percentage of the membership chose to participate.
Out of 2,652 members at the time, only 377 valid surveys were returned representing only 14% of the membership and only 11 out state MTA members (non-residents) actually participated in the survey contrary to the predictions of some.
194 (7.3%) opposed non-resident trapping
183 (6.9%) in favor of non-resident trapping
In a nutshell, the more things change, the more they remain the same. This issues is still basically a 50/50 proposition with no clear position from the membership at this time.
Remember to pick up you site validation paperwork for limit species if you purchased your trapping license beforehand.
DNR Enforcement Division’s Capt. Ken Soring attended BOD as a guest to answer questions about limit species validation coupons. They must be validated at kill site but don’t need to be attached to the animal in any way. It would be an advantage if storing unpelted animals or pelts at another’s residence to have the coupons attached to serve as documentation to avoid possible misunderstandings with Enforcement.
MTA made the request to DNR to consider removing the site validation requirement for next season and replace with a “before transportation” requirement. Jason invited MTA to once again attend a meeting with representatives of the DNR Furbearer Committee prior to the annual Furbearer Committee Meeting in March to make suggestions and discuss issues.
I’ll close for now and leave the bulk of the material for the Kathy’s deadline.
Keep your skinning knives sharp.
— Shawn Johnson
DISTRICT 1 REPORT
Hello all,
By the time you read this report our trapping seasons will have already begun. Hopefully we will have stable water levels, the nights won’t be too cold, and fur prices will be good. As we all know mother nature and world economics can really throw us a curve ball and everything can change in a hurry, but heck I’ve always been an optimist!
If you haven’t already heard the non-resident trapping poll numbers have been tallied. A grand total of 377 members responded which is a disappointing 14% of our membership. Totals were 194 against and 183 for. My guess is there is a small percentage of our members who are passionately either for or against non-resident trapping and to the rest of the membership it must not be that important of an issue.
We had our fall district meeting on Sept. 10. District elections were held and myself and Frank will represent you for another 2 yrs. Mike Peterson from Floodwood stepped forward and will be the 2nd co-director. Welcome aboard Mike! About 50 people attended the meeting and some of the items discussed were the new site validation coupons, the pine marten nesting box project, beaver season length, and although Jerome wasn’t in attendance we went forward with his idea and shared a few trapping and fur handling tips with those present. I want to thank my wife for putting on another fantastic lunch, to Frank and John Nelson for their tasty homemade pickles and dilly beans, and to all who helped set-up and clean-up. Also a big thank you to Minnesota Trapline Products and Smokey Reds Snare Supply for their very generous donations to our district raffle.
As I write this report on Oct. 2 the Pagami Creek fire is about 67% contained. Me and the wife took a ride up in the Isabella country yesterday to see some of the damage but were unable to as the roads were still closed north of Sawbill Landing and near Isabella Lake. I for one do not agree with the forest service let burn policy. Over 94,000 acres were burned and countless numbers of wildlife were lost. Lets all pray that the brave people fighting this fire all make it home to their families safely.
That’s all I have for now. Have a safe, successful, and profitable trapping season and remember to save a fur or two for MTA’s Tanned Fur Project. Till next time.
— Bert
DISTRICT 4 REPORT
Greetings District 4,
By the time you read this report the seasons will be going strong. I hope you have lots of color by then.
We had our Board of Directors meeting on September 24th. Many items were discussed. Fisher, martin and otter tags need to be validated on site. The DNR’s reason for this was so it will be consistent with deer, bear, turkey, etc., even though it is not what was presented to us before, we will just have to deal with it.
Non-resident trapping survey, only 14% of membership sent them back. 377 total and 194 were against and 183 for it.
31! Yes, only 31 tickets remain for the Legal Defense Banquet. Better get them soon or you could miss out.
Food for thought: Give me your opinion on having our State Convention in Barnum for a three year block.
Our District meeting is December 4th at Wealthwood Gun Club. Doors open at 5:00 and the meeting is at 6:00. Remember it is an election year. Make sure you attend if you can.
Till next time.
— Buzz
DISTRICT 5 REPORT
Hello everyone,
We had our fall meeting at Mark & Heidi Melby’s place on Saturday September 17th. I was nominated for Director, and Jerry Larson and Mark Melby were nominated for Co-Directors. There were no other nominations so a vote was taken and the three of us accepted the positions for two more years.
I would like to thank Tim Parker for doing a weasel demo, and Ron Hauser for doing a demo on Ginseng. They were both very informative and drew good crowds. Thank you also to the Melby family for lunch and refreshments and allowing us to have our meeting along with their Customer Appreciation Day.
On Saturday, October 1st, Deb Offerdahl, Jerry Larsen, Karen & Eugene Anderson, Jim Lawrence and I worked the 2011 Webelos Experience in Fairhaven. Over 3000 people attended this event. Thanks everyone for helping out.
Looks to be a good trapping season coming up, most fur inventories are down or sold out.
If anyone has anything they would like to donate to the Legal Defense Banquet in January, please let me know. Thank you also to Karen & Eugene Anderson for their donation to the Legal Defense Banquet. Also, I believe there are a few banquet tickets left. You can get these from Gary Me is.
Take care.
— Pete
DISTRICT 7 REPORT
Hello Fellow Trappers. District 7 held its fall meeting at Schmitt Enterprises Open House on September 3. Once again this meeting was well attended. It was talked about having a skinning bee at the spring meeting in Dovray. So instead of having demos in the afternoon, we would be skinning and putting up fur that would be donated to the tanned fur project.
So keep in mind, during the upcoming trap season to try and keep some animals for this skinning bee and the Tanned Fur Project. People will still be able to watch different species being put up, or get some pointer when they are actually putting up fur. We held elections and I was elected a Director for another 2 years. Co-Directors are once again Shannon Cohrs and new elect Brian Fischer. With this leadership it should be a good two years for District 7. If you do not know Brian, be sure to check out the upcoming newsletter to find more out about him.
Also at the meeting, we had discussion on the non-resident trapping survey. It was voted on by the membership that if the survey came back in favor of non-resident, that District 7 ask the board to have the directors take this issue back to their district for future consideration. The board meeting was held, September 24 and the survey came back with a majority of the surveys were against non-resident trapping. This was not brought forward with the survey coming out not in favor of non-resident trapping.
There are still a few tickets available for the Legal Defense Banquet. So if you are thinking of coming to the winter meeting, get your tickets before they are gone, by contacting Gary Meis.
Until next time.
— Leon Windschitl, Director District 7
