President — Randy Barrows , 88 North Road, Milton, Vermont 05468; phone: 802-893-4258; e-mail: critrgitr@msn.com
Co-Vice Presidents— Joe and Deb Epler, P.O. Box 12, Chester, VT 05143; phone: 802-875-4511; e-mail: jdepler@vermontel.net
Secretary — Deb Epler, P.O. Box 12, Chester, VT 05143; phone: 802-875-451; e-mail: jdepler@vermontel.net
Treasurer — Jim Calchera, 233 McCaffrey Rdg., Putney, VT 05346
NTA Director — Dave Perrin, 2600 Vt. Rt. 12A, Randolph, VT 05060; phone: 802-728-5935
Membership Director — Paul Ainsworth, P.O. Box 118, Eden, VT 05652; phone: 802-635-7343
Membership Options:
• Individual adult membership with subscription to The Trapper & Predator Caller — $20
• Family membership with subscription to The Trapper & Predator Caller — $25
• Oldtimer (65 & up) with subscription to The Trapper & Predator Caller — $10
• Lifetime membership with subscription to The Trapper & Predator Caller — $300
Complete membership application on first page of association section and send dues to:
VTA, Membership Director
Paul Ainsworth
P.O. Box 118, Eden, VT 05652
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Hello Vermont Trappers,
I hope what little summer we have had to date is being good to you. I have found that if you want to get anything done and stay dry, you have to get up at first light, work like hell for a few hours and when it starts to rain, sit under the porch roof, enjoy lunch and a cold pop, sit back and catch a nap. Nothing like a little shut eye with rain pattering on a tin roof. That has been the daily pattern so far this year.
The nuisance work is finally tailing off also. It started out strong as always. The top animals this year were woodchucks, foxes and squirrels. I wonder where the skunks went? I received very few calls for these this year. Rabbits are everywhere though, and this has not been the case in years. This is good news to a trapper because where there is food there will be criters there to eat the food.
I worked the Lamoille County Field Days last weekend and the turnout was good. It was good talking to all of you who stopped in and said hi. I enjoy the stories about trapping, especially the ones from years ago. The biggest topic was being caused by the smallest of Vermonts furbearers and I heard the same story 20 plus times. It goes like this: “I went out this morning and my chickens were all dead. No signs of a struggle, no holes dug or chewed, just a bunch of dead birds, no visible wounds etc.” I explained how the neighborhood weasel had stopped for lunch, courtesy of your birds.
They can fit through the smallest of wire, grab the bird by the neck, bite the neck open, and lap up the blood, discard it and on to the next. For an animal only 8-10 inches long weighing in at a pound they sure do cause alot of hate and discontent. The other two hot topics were bear, which are plentiful in Lamoille County, and the Catamount, which the jury is still out on. I even saw a couple pictures of catamounts recently. Too bad they are always blurry and distorted to the point of you can’t tell what it is a picture of.
VTA regretfully pulled away from its invitation to teach at the Conservation Camps. I made a big fuss about this two years ago and was told that the reason we were not in the camps was because no one wanted to teach. I advised VFW I would do my best to get instructors to teach at all of the camps and thought we were set. Well, for whatever reason it did not work. We got coverage for some dates and none for others and as we got closer everything seemed to start to fall apart. Rather than to go into this not prepared and understaffed, I cancelled our participation two weeks before we were to be there.
Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department went out of their way to get us in and I feel we failed them. For this, I personally apologize as I am the one who got this rolling. It would have been a perfect avenue to promote trapping at perfect settings, but still remains just a dream. Just one more nail in the coffin of this sport that is slowly passing away.
Hope to see you at a fair or the Rendezvous Sept. 12 and 13 in Barton, Vermont.
— Randy Barrows