Proposal 8 : shorten coyote seasons to Nov 10 to March 30 from Oct 15 to April 30 better fur.

Proposal 9 : Extend wolf trapping from April 30 to May 31st. "Hides would still be in great condition this time of year and......" I quote

Pick a proposal #: Stick beavers with arrows and reel them in.

I can't wait for the AC meeting.

Im against shortening any season. Id rather make the choice to not trap then have someone make it for me.

I agree with you. I think it should be up to the individual to make that call, not the state.

It's really the early opener that is a problem here on the road system and by catch is the biggie. Bears are still out and a nuisance griz with a snare on it's neck is not good. Then there's the problem of fox, cats, wolverine, etc getting into the early 'coyote' sets. There have been instances of trappers hitting it hard under the auspice of a coyote season. And I mean hit it hard just read between the lines. Enforcement is weak so that's a real problem and serves only to screw the honest trapper. In some areas with early coyote seasons only 3/32 snare or bigger is legal. Whatever. But far worse than that is some guys don't read too close so they set traps along with their snares. We even had an area biologist who wasn't aware that is was snare only when some lady got her dog caught in a 'coyote' set just off a trail near her house October before last. And this lady specifically kept close control of her dogs starting Nov 10 which is when she thought trapping seasons open and in fact everything else has always opened for a long time. Oh and she took that Channel 2 news. It was a 13 year old champion dog she competed with to jump hoops and run up ramps and all that stuff. The dog broke a tooth biting the trap so they showed a nice close up of that on TV. Early land trapping seasons on the road system are not good and all the season opener dates should be aligned.

I dis-agree. There are always those that push the envelope. Areas with the most restrictions are usually the most exploited.
Why have any season at all, if it should just be up to the individual? And why stop there? As long as I'm comfortable fishing with dynamite, and don't go over the limit, what harm? (I actually heard that from a person while taking comments on our local advisory committee).

Who needs dynamite if you have a hand cranked telephone handy? Lol

drasselt you have valid points, but on the flip side of what your saying the coyote season rules and regulations are in line with wolf season rules and regulations, which makes perfect sense to me. I don't know the history why those two are aligned like that but my guess would be that at one point wolfers were nailing the yotes pretty good and instead of turning that fur over to the state they adopted the current rules and regulations. Perhaps someone has some insight on that?

Why anyone would be targeting any other land fur at that time is beyond me, it would still be far from prime and for the most part still blue.

Were the heck did bow hunting beaver and reeling them in come from? Is that even a thing?

I never did understand the early opener for coyotes or the snare wire size requirement for the early opener?

How about making it legal to shoot beaver with a trapping license in every GMU? Sure would make reading the regs a lot easier.

Why do people trap open water beaver in September when they can do it end of October or clear into November when the fur is far better?

Because they can.

There is a proposal to open in August.

" Talked to the landing manager and he said that with them opening up beaver for shooting and the harsh winter and low water levels the beaver sign was pretty scarce."

Maybe this could happen where you live.

The hope was that an extended coyote season would help take pressure off of certain prey species had nothing to do with coyote by catch during early wolf season. Wolf snares are very much more exclusive of other species than coyote snare (loop size, height)

drasselt Ok, what species? Not trying to argue but trying to understand. Like I said your points are valid, out of the last 4 critters I caught in snares set for yote, 2 were yotes, 1 fox and 1 lynx.

Sheep. Pie in the sky.

Now I get where your coming from. Have to totally agree with you.

Many folks want an early beaver season for the bait, not the fur. And not everywhere does it freeze up that late.

-TJ

It is not legal to trap beaver for bait. You have to trap them for hide or meat for human consumption. Bait use is a byproduct of trapping for hides. Just Saying!

And other than skinning the early caught beaver, your not required to actually use the hide. In general beaver are plentiful and need some control. Not sure about an August season. Unit 22 has year round beaver season.

"hide will be put to human use" Whatever this is?

Where did you find that verbiage Dirt ? I am looking at the regs under "Use of Furbearers" and I can't find it.

Last phrase under " Salvage" under " Use of Furbearers"

Appears to refer to game animals?