I just pop the springs off the levers and they lay pretty flat under the pan for testing

Nice!

Hunting is open all year, trapping not.

True but read the upper left of page 5, pretty grey area . According to Plainwell Trapping and Hunting yotes on private ground is open all year. Personally it's promoting wanten waste of a valuable resource... They may look at it different up your way tho. When a paw hold is disabled by disconnecting the springs or zip tied the jaws it's just a piece of steel.. Make sure ya stake it tho. I've had coon and yotes carry them off..

I read it as on private land when they are doing or about to do damage. I just went through the process to get my ADC license and that explains "doing or about to do damage" pretty well. I don't see any reason to trap during off season unless they are really a problem. Like you said, that would be a waste.

Just adding about the game cam part. I make my own and found no difference between white flash and IR, in fact have seen more negative reaction to IR (am talking deer here, for the most part they investigate and have had multiple of them walking up to and touching lens with nose). Fisher, coyote, coon, fox, bobcat, etc. have multiple pics. of them working bait (right now set for fisher and have at least 200 videos over 4 days in same spot, same at several other locations too). The fisher pics. are with a cheap Wildgame Terra Extreme ($50.00) I got specifically to test against a homebrew. Night videos with it are SUPER but daylight pics. to me suck (homemade uses a real camera so quality is better but trigger time is slower). Haven't made up any video builds but one about to make will use a GoPro but be day only video so nighttime won't be able to do...no flash.
One thing you may encounter though is bear having an affinity of biting the camera. One picked up 2 days ago had both night and day pics. Have heard that the plastic smell makes them investigate more. Have several pics. of open mouths and teeth.

I have been using trail cams for years. I use the picture mode at first to see if activity happens then I go-to video for the final testing. I started using them on my deer scent test sites. I make a lot more money selling deer scents so I needed to see the real-time activity. One thing I have noticed in testing both deer and ADC/Trapping is that a scent will work all year, but the animal's response will be different on both time spent and reaction. For example, Doe in heat urine is an attractant all year, I start all my New deer scent testing in June and go till Sept. A deer both doe and bucks will come to a doe in heat urine at this time, and just smell it. they may spend a min or maybe 2 or 3 mins then walk off. Where in the fall from mid-Sept to late winter the buck will pick up the urine from say 50 feet away and run into the scent and spend time smelling and pawling rubbing trees and just react hard to it. Doe will come in and spend time on the scent and even urinate at the spot. The point is the dee reacts to it all year, just different reactions. Furbearers are the same. most reading these posts are Fur trappers and are only interested in the scent/ baits reaction power during the trapping season. But many of us are full-time ADC/ Wildlife control trappers and we need to not only know what works but the 4 w's what, when, where, and why it works at different times of the year. Real field dirty knee knowledge and information is a powerful tool.

You got that right Ron.

In New York you may not set or stake a trap prior to 7am opening day of season. May or may not apply here.