Been trapping since the 1980's and not a member currently to any trapping org.

I am a Member of the Iowa Trappers Association, NTA, and FTA, Have been a member of several others over the years.

I am Proud to be a director in the ITA.

I received word that one of our Bills;

A bill to create a Lifetime Fur harvester license for Disabled Veterans has passed both the House and Senate and will be going to the Governor's desk for her signature.

Last year We got a Youth License Bill passed.

Getting these items into and through the Legislative Process takes work and a bunch of tenacity.

Phone calls and emails both to Members and Legislators don't happen without an organized push.

Requests for Emails or Phone calls from trappers (members or Not) are important to getting these things done, there are only so many ways to notify or ask for the Legislative contacts, Newsletters, Website, Youtube.
Membership rolls provide a way to make Members aware of what is happening and way to have input.

All of our BOD meetings are open to all members and we encourage everyone to attend any meetings that they wish to.

When I started trapping i joined NTA and MTPCA and kept them current for years. Helped out with both. I let them both slide a few years ago and didn't renew. I appreciate what they do and the work the volunteers put in, but I got tired of following the drama and politics.

I've joined various other state and national associations over the years at conventions but never kept them up.

The only reason why that law changed is because the Métis are setting them and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

So to make it fair for everyone and easier on CO’s they made it legal.

Has nothing to do with anything else.

Belong to NTA and trap every year

Was just a member of PETA for many years but eventually joined the OTA and in the last two years Idaho Trappers Assoc.




.....(People Eating Tasty Animals)

I thought PETA was: Practitioners of Ensnarement, Trapping Animals

I'm a member of several trapping associations as well as other outdoors groups. It's interesting to hear how some can justify not belonging to any associations while they enjoy the ability to trap and partake in a sport they love.

I feel it's important to be a member of your state trappers association as well as a national association. But, if you do join, volunteer your time too; that's as important as your monetary contribution.

Still trapping, just removed a miscreant male coon form the backyard!, lol

I'll pre-apologize if I've misread your comment.

But.... if I'm understanding you correctly, the comment appears to suggest a person ought to have a justification for not financially supporting. In my opinion, that's backwards.

As I see it, organizations & associations are free to exist. They're free to solicit support and make the case for why people might want to support them. If people find them useful and give them $, that's great the association and the people who support it. But they are not entitled to support, and thus a person has no need to provide a justification for not supporting them.

Two exceptions I can think of are:
- the government. They declare themselves entitled to my money and don't accept any justification I might offer for why I shouldn't have to support them. Some would debate whether this should be so (i.e. the whole 'taxation is theft' thing), but regardless of what should be so, it is so.
- unions in states that are not right-to-work states. Again, people will debate whether this should be so (IMO no), but it is.

Aside from examples like that established by law, organizations are not entitled to support. If they want it, the burden is entirely on the organization to justify why a person ought to support them.


I'm not a member of any trapping association. I started trapping last year. I see far more value provided by this site than I think I could get from any association membership.
If Paul posted that the ad revenue isn't covering costs and asked people to contribute - I would probably throw him some $
If a trapping association was actively working on some legal issue and soliciting $ to help their fight, I would consider it.

Outside of that, if I (a light duty hobby trapper) was to contribute $ to a trapping association I think in practice all I would be doing is subsidizing the the activities of the serious trappers who belong to that org.

I trap, I only belong to natca.

That may be your theory, but it's not the case. Everyone in Manitoba or Saskatchewan involved in this program or paid any attention to it knows this. We all know there was guys using them, legal or not. There's still guys using free hanging snares and even the RTL guys won't be able to use them in a few years so to say it's the metis is really stretching the imagination.
MTA may still be an old boys club, but they're the voice for Manitoba trappers to the provincial government. We've been lucky the last few years having trappers working in the Wildlife branch.
Another poll should be.....if you consider yourself a trapper, why aren't you a member of an organization?

I trap
Member of the PTA and NTA

I trap but never really looked into any of the associations . . always figured I'm just lining somebodys pockets joining those things

Life member of NTA, osta , and Georgia trappers association. Don’t always agree with them, but!!! The long game is to protect trapping.

Life member NTA. ITA member.

I refused to be an ITA member after the old president ran me down constantly when I was a kid. All the way from when I was 16 until I quit attending the Illinois conventions at the age of 25 due to his constantly riding me and saying I was a free loader by not being a member- even though I was a member! He was so rotten to me I told him off and never went back. Great way to get members- not.... Recently I met some of the new leadership and decided they were decent guys so I became a member. I guess you could say I dropped my membership because I got tired of putting up being verbally abused by the president. It took me about ten years to find out I had asked to trap on one of '' his'' spots when I was 16 and he was offended by it. This actually pushed me out of my home county and it started me long lining at 19 for coon, mink, and coyotes. So it was good for me in a way. I eventually ran traps over 7 counties in Central IL and caught a pile of fur I never would have gotten if I would have stayed there and been a happy local trapper. Caught so much I could not find the time to skin and ended up selling once a week to the rat wagon to Groenewald. Now I attend all I can and have found trappers to be the nicest folks to spend time with and here I let one idiot get under my skin and spoil it for me. I liked pulling in to sell though with a squatting pick up full of coons and rats each Friday night and seeing him burn because he didn't have as much as the ''stupid kid'' did. Water under the bridge now.

So while Alberta and Saskatchewan were allowed to use common snares for coyotes and Manitoba was not, does that mean the MTA did not represent Manitoba well enough to have it legalized here from the get go?

Same reason why there’s Moose seasons for Manitoba hunters that aren’t Indian.

Manitoba wildlife would have had that shut down years ago across the Province, not just pockets. No one wants Indians to have the right and no one else.

I’m not giving MTA credit for this one.

Last time I joined at a fur sale o never got anything in the mail. last convention I put in every raffle to support each group.

Not sure what you’re talking about, nothing to do with Indians & white moose hunters….lol. I can’t speak for Alberta, but Saskatchewan thanked us for pushing them, they’re always a year or two behind us and stuck using Rams until this next coming up season. I think you’re grouping all sask trappers into one big rule book, it doesn’t work that way. Or you could just talk to Marty or Corey and get it from them, maybe they’re full of it?….lol
Free hanging snares will be done for our RTLs here soon enough, but there’s metis that’ll still use em. Most don’t follow any rules anyway.
Like I said, if you weren’t involved, you’ll come up with weird theories on why things change.

Life Member of the MN Association, active member of the FTA .