Oklahoma Furbearer Alliance February 2009 Report

President — Shannon Sheffert, 1301 Old Bumpy Rd., Stillwater, OK 74074; cell phone: 405-742-7884; e-mail: ssheffert@odot.org

Vice President — Janice Johnson, 18197 S. 337th W. Ave., Bristow, OK 74010; phone: 918-367-3810; e-mail: jjohnson6431@sbcglobal.net

Secretary — John Weygandt, 4720 S. 26th W. Ave., Tulsa, OK 74107; phone: 918-557-1282; e-mail: j.weygandt@maccor.com

Treasurer — Vivian Scott, P.O. Box 179, Alderson, OK 74522; phone: 918-426-6918; e-mail: littlerockmeme@msn.com

FTA Director — Terry Thornton, Rt. 2 Box 71, Hartshorne, OK 74547; phone: 918-297-2073

NTA Director — Darrell Woodward; P.O. Box 580416, Tulsa, OK 74134; phone: 918-625-3891;
e-mail: ibtrapn@aol.com

Membership Options:
• 1-year membership including subscription to The Trapper & Predator Caller — $20
• Family membership with subscription to The Trapper & Predator Caller — $25
• Lifetime (Over 70) with subscription to The Trapper & Predator Caller — $150
• Lifetime with subscription to The Trapper & Predator Caller — $300

Complete membership application on first page of
association section and send dues to:
OFBA, Treasurer
Vivian Scott
P.O. Box 179, Alderson, OK 74522
918-426-6918; littlerockmeme@msn.com
http://oktrapper.com

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Hello all,

As I write this newsletter, we are finishing up the year and getting ready to start the new year. I hope that you had a good Christmas and a happy and safe New Year holiday. As you read this column, our general trapping season is coming to an end and we still have a few weeks of bobcat trapping left to enjoy.

If you don’t already know, our two fur sales will be this month. The first will be on Feb. 7 at Chandler at the Expo Center on SH-66 just to the southwest of town. The second will be on Feb. 28 at El Reno at the fairgrounds. For this second sale, you must have a “holdover form” for the ’coons, foxes and other furs from the general season. For lot reservation, please contact John Weygandt either by e-mail at j.weygandt@maccor.com or by phone at 918-645-5667. Please call either him or I if you have any questions.

As for prices, all that I know is that prices are down and may be even lower by the time we take our furs to the sale. You can take your furs and if you are not happy with the price you can hold them for later sale, but please remember to bring or pick up one of the “hold over” forms from the wildlife department. You can also print off one of the hold over forms from our association Web site at www.oktrapper.com. We have not forgotten about the eastern Oklahoma trappers, but we didn’t have enough help to hold three sales this year. Next year, we will plan on holding at least one sale somewhere in east central Oklahoma.

The next item to mark on your new 2009 calendar is our Spring Convention. We have set the date for Saturday, March 28 and the location will be at a new location, the Okfuskee County Fairgrounds in Okemah. This location is the new fair building, one mile east of town along SH-56. It is the brand new building right off the highway. The location should be very centrally located to eastern Oklahoma near I-40.

We will have a main course for the lunch meal there, but please bring side dishes to go along with brisket, things like salads, side dishes of beans, vegetables, breads, pies etc. There will be some trap supply dealers there and we will have demos there throughout the day. Please call me if you have any demos that you would like to see as we are always looking for ideas. One more thing, please bring to the fur sales or the spring meeting three of your trap tags for a trap tag board that we are trying to assemble. We are going to put as many tags from our trappers as we can get together and create three of these boards as fundraisers.

I would also like to report on our Youth Trappers Camp. I had the pleasure to attend the first couple days. John Weygandt and Richard Thornberg organized the camp in spite of last minute changes in location. As it turned out, we couldn’t have asked for a better location as we moved the camp to the Diamond “H” Boy Scout camp near Cookson Okla. The camp is owned by Mr. Herman Mienders and is managed for the Boy Scouts of America by Tom Dugger. These two gentlemen are some of the nicest people you could ever meet and we can’t thank them enough for the use of the camp. We had 31 kids at the camp, 10 adults and 6 instructors.

Our instructors this year were John Weygandt, who also was chief cook, Richard Thornberg, our main organizer, Darrell Woodward, Jeb Hollingshead, TJ Norman, and myself. One other person I would like to thank is Glenda Walls! She helped out wherever she could and helped tremendously in the kitchen and around camp in general.

As I was leaving on Tuesday evening, we also had several other folks show up to help. Janice Johnson, Ron and Vivian Scott and even Monte Dodson stopped by with some stretched furs to show the kids how to make the most of their furs. We were successful on the trapline each day catching several critters including skunks, ’possums, ’coons and a bobcat as of the time of this newsletter with another day to go. We couldn’t have asked for a prettier camp and the dining room was unbelievable for meeting, classroom instruction, eating group meals and even sleeping quarters around the dining room for everyone. I am already looking forward to next year’s Youth Camp and we still have kids at the camp this year.

Thanks again for all of the work that the instructors put into the camp to get these 31 kids and the 10 parents off to a good start in trapping and just enjoying the wonders of nature that we get to see out on the trapline.

Please remember our troops around the world who are there to give us this freedom to enjoy these carefree times with our kids here at home. Hopefully you will all have a successful season and an even better year this new year.

Thanks and have a good 2009.

— Shannon Sheffert

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