Living on trapline year-round in Canada?

I plan to purchase a large trapline in the future and have begun to make the necessary preparations to do so. I haven't been able to find an answer to my question but have heard that in the USA you are only allowed to live on the trapline during trapping season.

I'm wondering if you are legally allowed to live on the trapline in your trappers cabin year-round in Canada, including outside of trapping season. Basically living a sustenance based lifestyle and only head back into society when required for supplies / medical treatment etc.

Ideally I would get things to the point of being able to live entirely off the land.

More than a few do it.

You have to have a canoe to do that!
mt

I could be wrong, but my understanding is you can if you own the lot that the cabin is on. You can't if it's a trapping cabin on crown land. BC could be different, but here in Alberta, you can't legally use the cabin for anything other than trapping related activities.

BC is the same.

Wouldn't spending the spring, summer, and fall, clearing trails, putting up winter food, and general trap line maintenance, all be trapping related?

Haha that was good.





I would hope that would be an allowable grey area. The other seasons would legitimately be used to prepare for the winter season and also to continually improve the trapping areas.

It would be crown land on a registered trap line. One of the larger ones above 100K acres. I’ve been monitoring and see them come up for sale from time to time.

In Alberta you can't legally use the cabin for hunting. F&G officers don't care much about it, unless someone make an official report against the trapper, obviously a lot of trapper use their cabin for other purpose, and very few got in trouble. All that said, I would think that if they decide to go after you, you would quickly loose everything. So if you pay 100G for a trapline and loose it after a year, that was a very expensive camping trip.

We can use our cabins all year round here for any activities we want,berryypicking,hunting fishing etc and family members also.The OFMF got those restrictions changed must be 10 years ago or more.
At the same time we also got a larger cabin size and extra building for equipment storage and fur handling.

From what I have heard there is some changes possible coming in B.C. and you wont be allowed to do what you are asking, but in saying that there is people squatting in quit a few places and
nothing seems to be done to them

Here in Yukon you can and many do. We used to be able to get our basecamps titled but now they just give leases. Im not sure what the actual laws in BC are, but I do know a few trappers in northern BC that do live year round on their traplines and have for decades.

Some BC trappers do live year round on their traplines. BUT, these are generally on lager deeded lands within the boundaries of the trapline. Cabin sites are for trapline operation and maintenance activities only and are located on limited size lease lots not conducive to year round living.

Trapline Cabin Sites must be no larger than 50 m x 50 m. b) Trapline Cabin Sites must not be closer than 20 km apart. No more than three associated Outbuildings are allowed per Trapline Cabin Site.Dec 11, 2013

The guys I know are not on deeded land. Ken Cottrel who was killed a few years back lived at Mess lake for decades. Ted and Joan Bedel lived on their trapline not far out of Dawson Creek for many years, then they bought a line way up past Makenzie and live there to this day. I know a few others as well. All of these people are in the northern part of the province where they probably dont bother them as much as they would further south.

Since working a remote line can be a year round deal, and things like trail cutting /cabin building are best done during summer/fall I wouldn't be afraid to use a trapline for year round use anywhere in western Canada. Canada has already ruled that trapping is a legitimate business ( this is why you can claim trapping expenses on your taxes.) If the powers that be got to pushy about it I think it would be an easy case to win in court...

I suspect that is a very rare situation. Would they possibly be of Indian ancestry ???

No, none of the people I know were First Nation. Not sure if you were part of, or remember Don Taylors trappers sched on 4441 back in the SBX 11 days? Anyway about half of the trappers on that sched were in Northern BC. Most of the trappers I've referenced I met through that sched. There were quite a few more that I only knew over the radio, that also lived on their lines year round.

It is rare for anyone to live on a remote line year round anywhere these days, no doubt about that; but there are still some who do, and some are in northern BC. There was another fellow that lived and trapped over in the Stikine country for many years. After the trappers sched closed down after 33 years I lost track of him and always wondered what happened to him. He was getting older so I suspect he was forced to go to town. His easiest access to civilization was the Stikine so going to 'town', to him meant a long boat ride to Wrangel Alaska. He even got his mail there. Kind of different for a BC trapper. You wouldn't know anything about this fellow would you? His first name was Dave but I never did hear his last name. Im sure anyone who trapped northern BC back in the 90s or even early 2000s would have heard of him.

I am not aware of a person named Dave who trapped the Stikine. The person I knew who trapped a remote area, being the Dean river, was Beto Hobbs and he is now deceased. He was sort of a hermit type and I suspect he lived mostly on his line but he was also a longshoreman and went outside for work for considerable lengths of time.

In Manitoba you can erect a cabin, outbuildings and line cabins by permit. Wall tent frames do not need a permit so long as the walls are deconstructed and laid flat for the winter every year. Typically the deconstruction of tent frames is overlooked so long as the line holder has his cabin permits in place. Use of trapping cabin for purposes other than trapping (ie outfitting) is not allowed without prior approval. Approval for other use is typically granted but outfitting is usually denied as the province has established defined outfitting areas in existence. I find the more remote you are that typically the more accepting the government is to granting 'other' use. Other use where i am is a non issue as i have never seen another human track on my trapline in 28 years lol.

Ha ha me too. If I see tracks I know Im going in circles!

[quote=bctomcat]

Near the end Beto had problems with the government. And was forced too move his camp from the airstrip onto deeded land.

Interesting, he also had a high dollar condo on Robson street in Vancouver. He prefered the bush they say.

I never meet him. Wish I would of.

Very interesting fella, everyone agrees.

I remember listening to Don, 436?iirc. Two guys that were always heard comparing trapping and gardens and tobacco were Mess Lake and Kermode Lodge. One of them was a Dave iirc. Good ole SBX