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.