That's the other part of it where they just have so many people but I can guarantee that not a single one has enough traps to get as many tails as they do.

Yes, you can imagine if you get your calculator out. Let's say the going price to rent CREP planted grasslands is $200 an acre. Take the 550k that is typically spend on the bounty tail program and divide that by $200. That is 2,750 additional acres of pheasant and deer habitat the state could rent for the year. Much of that would be obviously concentrated in counties that have a lot of CREP or just plain CRP because parcels enrolled in those programs are not uniformly spread across the state. Its a good gig if such rental would open a parcel or two where you live, otherwise its just some piece of "public" land that is an x number of miles away.

More public is more public. Benefits everyone. So yes, id rather have more public ground, no matter where it is, than paying people to pick up roadkill raccoon. Until they figure out how to only pay for animals taken on or near public ground, i think its a load of crap to pay people to take coon off of private ground they get paid to hunt by a group from Across the country.

I think Alberta might have something like it. I don't know if it is at the Providence level but a friend from there spoke of something like it.

I think the first step is going to be to get the WI DNR to let trapping and coon hunting season stay open till the day before Turkey season

finding funding is likely to be much harder than a simple date change in the rule book that would benefit turkey populations

then you sell the idea to turkey hunters and other bird hunters and get them interested in cage traps and learning about DP's as land owners they can run DP's in WI if not they need trappers Ed which is a god place to get them in touch with other new trappers to help them catch.


as for pay out for tails , private funding from turkey groups and pheasant groups might come easier both are into habitat projects and that is what this would be


just getting the season extended into spring would be the first move in my opinion

if you get a resolution written to extend the season the next step is get someone in every county to present it at the Conservation congress meeting once it is on the ballot then it can get a vote pushing it along

probably looking at a 2-3 year process just to get them to change the season dates.

The key to pheasant (and other game bird) populations is nesting success rate. Habitat quality is an important contributing factor in nesting success, because it makes nests less vulnerable to predation. So it is logical that predator density is also an important contributing factor in nesting success. Management programs can be more effective by addressing multiple contributing factors.

Bounties never work.

They should make people bring in a finished coon, so that way it takes a little more work and then people can't just pick up roadkill. Not much you can do about people taking them off of private ground though.

Georgia doesn’t have bounties, but our DNR just opened possum and coon up to hunting/trapping year round on private ground. That’s a big win for our ground nesters, plus it gives us part time trappers to make some money.

Few young trappers will put up fur if that was the case the majority of young trapper would be out of it. Being a 4H instructor for the last couple years I see little interest in fur handling.

Yeah, I guess that wouldn't help much on the young trapper side of things. I wish I had the space to do fur handling but it just doesn't work out and I'm really interested in it. I have 2 guys who are willing to teach me everything they know.

.........as declared by management agencies that compete directly for any funding that might go to bounty programs.

Your seeking knowledge most working the bounty are lured by the dollars but may gain interest while doing so is the hope.