Going to be in Wrangell Jan. 21-27, would be fun to meet some trappers.

BOG meeting?

Yeppers.

There are a few trappers operating up the Stikine that should be there. I would definitely be there if I were still in Juneau. I haven't seen the proposals for this go-round. Anything trapping-related for 1C? I will guess Douglas wolves, again.
I'm sure the usual suspects from "Bio-Diversity" et. al have their non-sense, wasting your time...sigh.
And probably bears on the Chilkat Penn in 1D. Then there is POW. You will have a full plate, I'm sure.
Good luck to you all on the Board.

There is a proposal for trap ID tags. Allowing the use of cell cameras.

I will not be there, I'll see if my trapping partner will be back in town by then; his wife drug him off to New Zeland for a couple of weeks.
Mike must be getting soft, it's the first I've ever seen him get Shanghaied in the middle of trapping season.

I fought hard to get those tag requirements done away with. I hope they don't come back. I had a Trooper that was a real problem for trappers in the northern southeast panhandle several years ago that would commandeer one of the State boats in the middle of winter, go all the way to the end of the road, (north of Juneau), launch off the old ramp myself and another trapper would use, (the other trapper frequently had to plow the ramp as well as places for us to park), then head out into the bay. He would troll the beaches looking for my tracks in the snow, then beach the boat, follow my tracks through the woods to my sets, then remove my traps.
I caught him doing this and told him what I thought of that, including that he was breaking the law as my traps were all legally set.
His claim was that he was looking for my tag. And while he was at it, checking my bait, too. This went on for an entire season. i would find my concealed wolverine traps laying on the ground, 120s set back in boxes upside down, bait missing, you name it.
This was right after I resigned from the A.C., and I made a big stink to Stephanie Sell, who was our Regional at the time, and also let Ryan Scott, (who was and is still a good friend of mine), know what was going on.
Steph let me know later that day that I wouldn't have to worry about it any longer, and she was right.
The point being, of course you will hear plenty about people moving traps to implicate trappers for illegal sets, help identify illegal sets, and what-not, but there are other perils of misuse by the very people that would be in charge of enforcing such regulations. and while I am neutral about cell cameras for trapping, they would indeed be useful for the trapper in identifying others that tamper with or steal legally set traps. I honestly don't see how their use provides some un-fair advantage, or other misuse, though. Food for thought.

Having tags on your traps isn't necessarily a bad idea, but allowing game wardens to mess with your sets is. I remember years ago when I was a kid, my dad having a game warden go through his line and pick up every trap he could find in order to "check it for a tag." Then of course he put them back down not in the same place. Now granted this was a water line, so scent wasn't an issue, but he still tampered with a large number of sets and made them inoperable or set the traps in such a way as to educate any critters that visited it. I know of another game warden here that has since retired. He spent all day opening day of cat season one year following a trapper around on a snowmachine, who was setting his cat traps and tripping all of them, he finally caught up to the trapper at his pickup just before dark and started to harass him, because he didn't think that cat season opened untl the next day. This is the same game warden that took the bait out of another trappers set (goose livers) and had it DNA tested to prove it was from wild geese (at that time you could not use any parts of game birds or animals as bait, this reg has since been changed) and then wrote him a ticket for it. Anybody else other than a game warden would be charged with harrassment for such antics (actually probably not, I've never known them to actually charge anybody with harrassment, and in fact they refused to charge or even give a written warning to a guy who stole three of my dads wolf traps, they got the traps from the guy and gave them back to my dad, but flat refused to charge him with anything) but because they are a game warden it is perfectly legal for them to do, here.

Not allow the use of night vision for taking furbearers. Allow a trapping season for Mt. Lion. Remove sealing of beavers. Change the bag limit for fisher. Require trapping education in unit 2.

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/...oard/pdfs/2025-2026/proposals/se-all.pdf

I was the original author of 3 proposals to open a season for fisher. My first 2 failed. After Ted Spraker encouraged me to try a third time, (he was chair at that time), I added a limit of 1 fisher. It passed with that condition.
I went on to catch 4 or 5 in the years that followed, and never more than 1 in any regulatory year. I know others that also caught a few, and a husband-and-wife team that did catch 2 in one year, south of Juneau.
There are areas around Juneau that could indeed produce 2 or 3 in a season, and they would in all likelihood be taken in marten and wolverine sets, as were every single fisher taken, that I know of.
I doubt eliminating the bag limit would have any adverse effect on what is an expanding population of fisher.
That said, the winter southeast is experiencing this year will wreak havoc on certain animal populations, and fisher could be one of them.

As for proposal 18, the season for grouse used to be end of May, but after about the first week of May, we were finding eggs in hens. Not good.

And the various brown bear enhanced seasons/bags: well, I was involved in that, too. I held the trapping seat on the AC at the time and championed a proposal for the change to the bag in Berners Bay from one every 4 years to 1 every year. The Bay has an incredible number of bears, both brown and black, and is very difficult to hunt. There is a small moose population, and the idea was to reduce predation in the area. I, as well as a couple of others that heavily utilized the bay would try to do our part with bear harvests, but getting others involved in harvest proved difficult. Other areas with a very healthy brown bear population, such as the Chilkat Peninsula can be equally challenging, however there are areas that boat hunters could certainly have an effect with a larger harvest. However, as long as guided hunts are limited, it is doubtful resident hunters would have much effect on the over-all population.

I wish I were there. I truly miss BOG meetings. Can't say that for BOF.

Thanks Viking, I always appreciate background info. I don't always read about that in public comments. Info direct from trappers is always good. I also wish i could meet you.

Trap tag proposal came from an anti I assume?

When they passed tagged traps for Southeast way-back-when, the proposal was from a self-appointed group of anti-consumption folks that had some cooked-up moniker: Friends of something or another. And yes, they were a real pain for some time. Incredibly, they were able to re-configure the AC to include a non-consumptive user seat, and a seat that was, get this, a whale watcher!!!
It was disgusting. The anti-everything guy had this small group that attended every meeting, and when he got to talking and sharing his "ideas", they were mesmerized. I was waiting for them to start chanting at any moment.
Fortunately, I knew the Roberts Rules of Order much better than he did, (or the chair, for that matter), and was usually able to table his non-sense.

AV's tale of the nonsense imposed on his local AC is, unfortunately, not so rare. Trappers and hunters need to be extra-vigilant and ready to counter the skulduggery! With the advent of social media, its not difficult to monitor the activity of the troublemakers. The BIG problem occurs when trappers and hunters are apathetic and do not get off their butts and come out to vote in our people and support good wildlife/fish conservation proposals. Eventually things get turned around and straightened out, but sometimes it takes several years. AC participation is VERY important.

I wish more consumptive users would come to recognize this and act accordingly.

Pete

Trap tags are bad idea that should go away. All it does is expose the trapper to harassment. It's just like the NICS requirement on firearms.

What W17 said...!

I’m in Mexico, or I’d come say hi. I don’t live too far from Wrangell

Very nice here in Wrangell. Nice break from the interior. Had a friend feeds us King salmon (white and red) and king crab. A very nice perk to living here. Now i just have to figure a way to go fishing.

^^^^^^
Too bad that halibut season is closed one month out of the year; January. Never could figure that out.
You should be able to catch a winter king though, prettt close to town; like right in front of town.
If you see a couple of guys trolling out front, just ask around as to who they might be, you could probably fihure it out.

Did you hitch a ride for a king? I imagine that if you make it known that you sure would like to have a lash, maybe as the chair is announcing a break, you will indeed get an offer.

Yes i did see a few boats out front trolling. i am asking around. Very nice down here.

How did it go? You are probably flying home right now, or maybe tomorrow? Can't get much on line, as to voting yet of course.
Hope you got a ride and were able to drag a line.

not flying home yet.. still in deliberation. it is crazy down here. any new technology makes everyone a poacher. what the heck.

Al..can u ask the Juneau bio why they manage brown bears differently in SE.? That goes against the adfg mission. There are so many in 1c .
So why cant the residents take a brown bear every year???( Because the bios want to protect these apex predators). It likely will go up one or 2 bears per year but they say they have 68 to 150 based on there formula. In just this one area. Apparently. These liberal bios know more about wildlife than I do...even though I spend more time out there and see what is actually going on. We could have more moose in 1c if the bear population was managed like up north. Also We have brown bear dominating traditional black bear areas ask any hunter in the springtime...one evening we saw 8 brown bears in one bay.....zero black bears and zero moose. Remember...the mission is to manage to maximize yield for all user groups..clearly the tourists and fly fishermen deserve a brown bearvPic over my resident brown bear tag..which we pay for here in SE...supposedly it goes to fund the SE brown bear management plan that they only do every 23 years. Rant over

rosscoak, This was one of the most frustrating meetings down here yet. to answer your question on the bear biologists. they are not liberal tree hugging bear loven people. There is this bear management plan that is over 40 years old. It was put together by a team of all stake holders. viewers, guides, lodge owners the department, usfws, us forestry and communities. (over 40years ago). In short, they all agreed to this plan. No more than 4% harvest. only a certain amount of sow harvest. season dates. boundaries and so on. Nearly everyone down at the meeting told the board Do Not change this plan, it works! It was even noted "there is the Brown Bear Management Plan from the team and then there is the bible and that is the order of importance. You are very correct rosscoak, there is substantial evidence there are a lot more BB in 1c and unit 4. No board members were will to go against this BB management plan. Except for me. I amended, i believe most every proposal to allow more resident harvest. Mainly amending a 1 bb every for 4 years to 1 BB every year for residents. Even though resident harvest would be low. I could not get another board member to side with me. They did not want to go against the BBMP! That is the short answer. Yes there seems to be an increase in the bb population. But fish and game has not surveyed snice 2000. so data we had was 25 years old. I was confident that the BB population has grown quit a bit. And my votes reflect that.

I was able by just one vote 3 to 4. to keep from having trap ID tags and not to require all trappers to take a test before they are allow to trap in south east. Had a local Dave Brown (former BOG member) feed us white king salmon. regulator king salmon, King crab, cheesy halibut and home made deer summer sausage (should have had my thanksgiving pants on). I also found a guy (Tanner i think was his name) sell me some shrimp for $11 pound. Great trip. great town and would be a great place to live.

Well, I pitched the Berners Bay BB harvest increase of one per year, and it was well received. That said, I had a cooperative Board, and while it certainly generated a lot of conversation, it prevailed. It was opposed by the Department, of course.
I should add, it took two tries. Back then, cycles were two years, so I didn't have to wait too awfully long to refine the proposal, and also happen to get a new board member that truly understood the situation in that area.

Maybe we should give SE to Canada! Then our legislature would have to meet on the mainland. SE could be part of the trade for Alberta!

They don’t want us. Too rotten, down here. lol!

And we are mainland, BTW…..

Only some of us lol

That was close on the trap tags and class!! Thank you for all you do and the updates.
We have a lot of those same trapping proposals coming up in the next BOG meeting in Kodak

Yes! thanks for your votes and support Isnare!

Ross, as a rep of ATA and the SEAK trapping community, you may wanna consider the knee jerk assumptions and boxes. Especially on a public forum and in reference to a time honored process involving those hardworking folks that manage the resources we all value.
Just a respectful simple suggestion.