Neat story:

A biologist trapper retires after helping transform the Aleutian Islands
https://www.trappersreport.com/stor...r-helping-transform-the-Aleutian-Islands

Excellent story!

I wonder if Wisconsin trappers would receive the same recognition if we saved countless thousands of birds and small mammals by ridding our state of feral cats. Hmmm . . .

If I remember correctly if you do that in Wisconsin you just get petitions calling for your arrest.

Maybe MJM will chime in here. He was part of that effort.

indeed

I was out at shemya in the 80's. them fox where so imbred! they needed to go then!

great story thanks for sharing

Cool story and a feather in the trappers hats on the conservation too.

I was lucky enough to spend some time with Steve. He was a great guy, much different than most the biologists I have ever been around. He knew about every island on the chain and I would bet he was on most of them. He would spend most the year camped out on islands. I helped eradicate fox off three islands. Rotook, Kanaga, and Chirikof islands. We would go out by boat and camp on the islands for three to four months. I really enjoyed the time I spent on the islands.
There have been all sorts of mammals planted on the islands. Fox, marmots, rabbits, ground squirrels, cattle, horses, bison and I found a sheep skull on Kanaga. There were no sheep left on the island when I was there. It was a place that not many see. I would love to go back.

Looks terrific MJM but let’s get on to the GOOD stuff. How was the nightlife??

Osky

There’s a saying about that country. “You can find a woman behind every tree.” I love that picture on the beach with an arm load of traps .

MJM do you know if they ever tried to get the fox from Sanak and the islands surrounding it? I heard they had a system for rounding up the cattle that were on that island.

Those islands were crawling with fox, big red fox, silvers and at times other color phases, and they were big and healthy. I always wanted to go back and trap some of them but never did.

A lot of people don't realize that many of those islands have bison on them.

Three Fingers, I kept looking, but never found the tree. The horns on my helmet came off Sanak. BernieB I was on Sanak and Canton ( Big island east of Sanak) for a few days on the three trips I made out. They did try to remove the fox off those islands and thought they had it done. When I went to Kanaga, we stopped at Sanak to try to find a radio transmitter that had been on a swan, and do a recheck for fox. We saw a fox and shot it. We did not see what we thought was any other fox sign. But who knows if there were more or not. I would guess there was. The island of Sanak is not 100% refuge, so that makes things a little more complex when it comes to eradication.. The fox that were remove form the islands I was on were what they called a blue phase arctic fox. They were brown to almost black. They were worth way more money back in the day than the reds or whites. Records show the guy on Kanaga that raised fox and bought fox made over $30,000 in 1930. I stayed in the house a few times as a spike camp. That halibut came out of the bay that went back in there.
Here is a site with pictures that Steve took of the area. It is his site. https://www.amnwr.com/

I Imagine the ones that were real dark gray in the summer were the Norwegian Blue fox, which are much like arctic fox except they have a blue tinge to them. I used to raise them and had a coat made for my wife when I sold them all. Very pretty. Really cool to see how the cattle on Sanak have adapted and changed their features in such a short time. I have said for years I wanted to go back there and spend more time looking instead of working, but it will probably never happen.

Great Article

BernieB. The fox on the island I trapped were brown when prime. They would range from brown to almost black and summer coat would be dark with some gray. The only other color of fox I saw were reds and they were on Akun island. There is a picture of a red fox on Akun on Steves site I listed. I was sitting in the skiff when he took the picture. That is me checking out the fence on Akun and the back of my head looking at Poa Island. I spent three plus months on Chirikof which as cattle also. They did not have it grazed off as bad as Sanak. I figure in time the cattle on those islands will wipe themselves out. The bull to cow ratio is about equal and when a cow/heifer comes in heat there will be eight to ten bulls chasing her. Some are rode into the ground and never get up. Others fall off cliffs, trying to get away from all the bulls or go out into mud bogs and get stuck. Steve wanted to do an eradication on the cattle, but the public didn't really like the idea of that. Some of people thought they should haul the cattle off alive and sell them and others thought it was OK to kill them as long as they took all the meat off the island. But the people with those bright ideas, had never been there and have no clue about the logistics of getting cattle or meat off the island. If you were going to go and shoot one to haul off, not a real problem. But when you are going to try to remove 1500-2000 head things start to get more complex. With Sanak only being part refuge Steve said that it would never fly to try to eradicate the cattle on it. What year were you out to Sanak and how long. It was really interesting the things you would find on those islands. We found what was left of a case of dynamite on Canton. I am sure it was left by the Army. It was at the radio towers. There were towers on Chirikof also. There is a lot of war history out on those islands. Adak Island

Bernie I bought a blue fox woman's stroller years ago. Silly me on that story. Been hanging here since, but what a beautiful coat. I should get to selling it.

Osky

Any Bears on the islands ? Black or Griz ?

No bears on any islands I was on. Chirikof is only about 65 miles SW of Kodiak Island. The salt water doesn't freeze over for the most part, so it would be swim or be hauled on a boat. Other than sea mammals, seals, sea lions, sea otter, most the islands didn't have any mammals unless they were planted by man. Sud have a pair of river otter that had pups. Rotook had voles on it. I would guess they came off a boat at one time or another. I was on about 5 other islands with in 50 miles of Rootok and none of them have voles. I spent a couple weeks on Tangik and Poa which both had domestic rabbits. Steve traced the planting of some mammals back into the time Russia owned AK. The cattle on Chirikof were planted by Russians to feed trappers trapping fox in the area. Tufted Puffin in a nesting burrow.