http://www.watrappers.com
President — Bruce Vandervort, 5338 US Hwy 101, Humptulips, WA 98552; 360-288-2466; brucevandervort@hotmail.com
Vice President West — Marsee Wilson, 13190 Avon Allen Road, Mount Vernon, WA 98273; 360-424-7580
Vice President East — George Brady, P.O. Box 535, Pateros, WA 98846; 509-923-2326; cascadeb@televar.com
Executive Secretary — Ralph Dobson, 711 196th Street NW, Arlington, WA 98223; 360-652-2132; rlph.dobson@gmail.com
Treasurer — Tammy Rice, PO Box 604, Moses Lake, WA 98837; 509-855-4902; tjrice00@hotmail.com
NTA Director — Bob Maier, 38 Francis Dr., Walla Walla, WA 99362; 509-529-9568; bobmaier38@yahoo.com
Membership options:
• Regular Membership (18 And Older) — $25
• Junior Membership (Under 18) — $5
• Associate Membership (Non-Trapper) — $10
• Family Membership — $30
• Senior Membership (Over 70 and must be a former paid member whose dues are current) — $0
• Lifetime Membership (One-Time Payment) — $250
• To receive Trapper & Predator Caller through WSTA (members only) — $12
Complete membership application on first page of association section and send dues to:
WSTA
(A non-profit organization)
PO Box 3687
Arlington, WA 98223
Dues entitles members to all newsletters, meeting notices, discount entry to workshops and the annual rendezvous. All monies are used to protect your right to trap.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
A couple of things to report since the last newsletter.
I spent 5 days running our booth at the South West Washington Fair. Attendance seemed to be up a little. It’s always a friendly crowd down there but there seemed to be an increased amount of interest in trapping. Actually quite a few people inquired about getting started trapping. I only had one anti talk to me and that was about two sentences and she left. Apparently I am responsible for the extinction of the buffalo. Who knew?
I signed up one new member which brings to mind how much our membership has grown in the last few years. Ralph says we’re up to 405 members. It seems our membership is growing at about a 10% rate for the last few years. Pretty impressive really. I think George Brady deserves a lot of the credit for this. He’s pretty good when it comes to signing up trapper education students.
So, just after the fair I had a meeting with the new Furbearer section manager, Brian Calkins.
Seems like a nice guy and he said he had trapped for a couple years when he was a teenager. That can’t hurt.
I talked to him about Trapper ID numbers. Currently the department is not issuing new ones which is bad for new trappers. I asked him about allowing your wild ID number to be used as a Trap Identification number. He said he thought they could do it without going to the commission so I think that will happen.
I asked about ending the closed areas for otter in Eastern Washington and doing away with the otter limit there also. That I think might happen but we will probably have to wait three years. Donny Matorella told us he could do it if we brought it up now but he is gone and Brian doesn’t want to rewrite the three year package. We’ll keep bringing this up and it’ll probably happen sooner or later.
Talked about extending the trap check time. I think this is a tough sell.
Hit on a few other subjects such as Cites tagging by fur buyers and the problem of Trapper Education instructors not getting a card. He was in the dark on these subjects and needed to research them. We’ll have to revisit them at a later date as if we haven’t been trying to get something happening on these for umpteen years.
Frustrating! WDFW has a habit of agreeing to something and then forgetting about it.
All we can do is keep bringing it up. George is going to talk to him about these things too and he has a way of making them agree with him. Not so sure about getting them to act.
Well, as I write this I’m gearing up for the Puyallup Fair. Heading out tomorrow to set up the booth. I had pretty good success getting people to work the booth and my thanks go out to all the volunteers.
That’s about it for now. I’ll catch you next report with how the fair went. — Bruce Vandervort
We have a House Bill here in Santa Fe New Mexico and the Representative is just picking and choosing what animals can be trapped and basically banning trapping and fur sales. Do you have advice on how to oppose this and Can he just override Dept of Game and Fish like he thinks?? I feel like it is just to take away people from the woods and the need for the “land” so he can introduce Fracking and oil companies will be happy. Is that possible. ?? it is HB579 and it reads like it was written by a child. Thank you.