President — Bill Howe; 607-756-6763
Vice President — John Slocum; 607-849-6681
Treasurer — Art Manz; 607-863-5434; amanz05@yahoo.com
Secretary/Newsletter Editor — Les Wedge; 607-749-3292; toadfish1@hotmail.com
Membership Options:
• Individual membership without Trapper & Predator Caller — $20
• Individual membership with subscription to Trapper & Predator Caller — $32
Complete membership application on first page of association section and send dues to:
Cortland Country Trappers of New York
Secretary Art Manz
Box 14
Cincinnatus, NY 13040
SECRETARY/NEWSLETTER EDITOR’S REPORT
October 2014 Minutes of the Cortland County Trappers Association
President Howe called the meeting to order at 5:10 p.m. on October 19, 2014. The 50/50 raffle was won by Lou Giacco. The Duke 110 from Howe’s Trapping Supplies was won by Butch Jenks.
Since we had an invited guest from DEC, Bill Schara, to give a presentation on the fisher trail camera survey in central and western New York, the rest of the meeting was delayed until the presentation was done. Bill gave a detailed power point report on the project describing how the camera locations were picked, why the survey was done, how it was done and the results. The project had two objectives: to estimate occupancy rates (the percentage of the area occupied by fishers) and to estimate the population. The latter is being done using DNA analysis conducted by Cornell University (or it will be when the contract is completed). Cameras were set out in DEC Regions 7, 8, 9 where there is no current fisher season and in one area each in Region 4 and 6 where there is currently a season as “control” sites. Camera sites were based on a 15 square Km (about 5.8 square miles) grid which is the range of a female fisher and to cover different forest types. Each site had a trail camera aimed at a tree containing beaver or muskrat meat encaged in chicken wire. The bait was surrounded on three sides with plastic strips with rifle cleaning brushes to collect hair samples for DNA analysis. Above the bait was a site number which would show in each photo. 74% of the sites in Region 7 had photos of fisher while 71% had photos of fisher in 2014. The study will be repeated in 2015 and expanded to new areas to the north. One fisher in region 8 was fitted with a radio collar.
Bill gave a brief report on the initial season of the expanded bobcat harvest area. There were 1719 permits issued with only a 75% return rate of the trapping and/or hunting log. 137 bobcats were harvested, 83 % by trapping.
Thanks, Bill, for a great presentation!
Returning to the regular meeting, President Howe said the winner of the gun raffle bought his ticket at the Maple Festival. Our rendezvous was plagued by rain. We also held it on a Saturday this year to attract a different group of trappers who, unfortunately didn’t attend. The Independent Fur Harvesters have new officers: Rich Palmer is the President and Al La France is the Secretary. They had a work day to repair damage to their clubhouse but Bill didn’t get a notice of it until afterword. The Solon Sportsmen are working on the new clubhouse.
The Treasurers report was read and accepted.
Les Wedge reported on an article about trapping that is due to be published in the Cortland Standard in the coming week. Bill Howe and he were contacted by a reporter who was doing a series on hunting and trapping. We met with him for about an hour over coffee and Les did a demo fox/coyote set for a photographer.
Les spoke about attending a series of meetings to represent NYSTA in an advisory group to DEC as part of updating the State Wildlife Action Plan. The Plan needs to be updated every ten years for the state to be eligible to receive federal funds to assist endangered, threatened and special concern species.
Round table:
Lance Smith concocted some trapping lure using beaver tail as a base and has it for sale.
Visiting trapper and trapping instructor from Alberta, Canada, Polyanna Zinck spoke of trapping in her home Province and issues there. The Province is conducting a wolverine study. Compared to central NY, Alberta certainly is different with wolves, wolverines, cougars and moose roaming around.
Ray Nolan, NYSTA region 7S director, spoke about NYSTA’s concerns regarding the Fisher Management Plan which should be available to the public in mid-November.
He also mentioned that NYSTA will have a raffle with a drawing each day in November and there are tickets still available.
There was also a discussion on the difficulty of knowing when one’s membership expires since membership cards are not usually given out.
Russ Phelps, owner of Four Seasons Taxidermy, is looking for a real nice red fox for a project he is working on and offered to purchase one from club members. Just freeze it whole and call him at 607-591-9832.
There will be no demo next month. Les will provide the dinner.
The meeting was adjourned at 7 p.m.
Respectfully submitted. — Les Wedge
