They need to read about Horry county South Carolina. Article says the county was spending $200,000 per year paying for USDA trappers, but they still had problems with beavers. It seems that they believed they could entice trappers to go after beavers, some of which are the hardest of hard, the beavers that escaped trappers that do it for a living for $25.

I drive an average truck. It takes $75 to fuel up, and a single beaver trap costs $25+.


When someone doesn’t have any bills and the volume is there, that’s decent money, but when everything that goes into beaver trapping is considered, it doesn’t go far.


That says a lot.

In MN you can keep the fur and castor if it's during the open season on beaver. If it's not, like summer for instance, you can't keep any part of the beaver.

I trapped 5 beaver one summer that had flooded a farmer's alfalfa field. I left them lay in a nearby woods thinking predators would clean them up. That didn't happen and the farmer was mad at me for not taking them off his property. He called the CO who told me I should have taken them off the property or buried them. I told her I didn't want to take them off the property and get a ticket for trapping beaver out of season. Plus, I didn't have a shovel with me.

Will our DNR ever wise up and realize that fur is worthless in the summer months?

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/97B.667

Not sure the link will work but check under subdivision 3, item C. The way I read it you can keep beaver on a nuisance job in MN. I know some COs that read it that way as well

The last couple beaver jobs I did, when I got a permit to trap the beaver out of season, the COs made it clear to me that I couldn't keep any part of the beaver. That was two different COs.

On a better note, the township I live in pays a bounty of $3 on each pair of pocket gopher feet. One of the township board members said they were debating on possibly raising it to $5.
No skinning, just a pair of wire cutters to take off the two front feet. I caught 71 this past summer. But, now that I retired last month, I will go after them full time come summer.

Where are all these guys that are going the adc trapping route now that fur trapping prices are depressed? Thats all I been hearing for the last several years "I will go ADC trapping instead". 5000 doesnt seem like much of a bankroll for several counties but I know nothing about bounties. Sure seems like a lot of hoops to go through for a "problem" animal. Also wouldnt that be a conflict of interest with the local ADC guys? I guess it all depends on where the money comes from.

I thought the comeback of the beaver was a conservation success story like wolves. Apparently so.

ADC and bounty trappers are usually two different things. Bounty trappers, depending on bounty amount and customer expectations, tend to take the easy ones and move on. They might get them all, they might get most, or they might just pluck off dispersers from road right of ways. Whatever the case, with beaver control, what matters is that the last one causing damage must be removed. What happens in many instances is singles and partial colonies are left behind for ADC guys to come and have to finish, because what bounty Trapper is going to make 5 trips for a single $25 beaver? Who CAN afford to do that day in and day out?

Each township is different and your required ti turn in the feet for bounty to the township they where caught in. Some turn them into the township that pays the most which is not being honest. I trap several townships for beaver and pocket gopher and being honest will get you more work in the future. Gophers around here go for $3-$5 and in some townships the local cellular phone company will match it with some of the LO's kicking in as well. I average about 500 pocket gophers a year so it all adds up quickly. Easier and more profitable trapping muskrat these past few years.

My 2 local COs only give me a permit inside the two weeks before or after season. Anything in the middle does not require one. It took a while for the second one to come to that conclusion but did after talking to the other.

My county pays $150 for nuisance beaver on a specific ditch/ culvert. Got hired last spring for county ditches that were flooding about 6k acres. We caught 84 beaver in three weeks. I would like to find about 6 more like that per year.

That makes sense, didnt look at it that way. My next question is where exactly does the bounty money come from?

In this case the county budgeted the money.