President — Bruce Vandervort, 5338 US Hwy 101, Humptulips, WA 98552; phone: 360-288-2466; e-mail: brucevandervort@hotmail.com
Vice President West — John Consolini, 17030 Marmount ST SE, Monroe WA 98272; e-mail: itrap4you@yahoo.com
Vice President East — George Brady, P.O. Box 535, Pateros, WA 98846; phone: 509-923-2326;
e-mail: cascadeb@televar.com
Executive Secretary — Ralph Dobson, 711 196th Street NW, Arlington, WA 98223; phone: 360-652-2132; e-mail: rlph.dobson@gmail.com
Treasurer — BJ Thornily; 63 Redmond Rd., Republic, WA 99166; phone: 509-775-2936;
e-mail: bobbiemike@yahoo.com
NTA Director — Bob Maier, 38 Francis Dr., Walla Walla, WA 99362; phone: 509-529-9568;
e-mail: bob_maier@hotmail.com
Membership options:
• Individual membership including subscription to Trapper Predator Caller — $30
• Junior (under 18) with subscription to Trapper Predator Caller — $15.50
• Associate (non-trapper) including subscription to Trapper Predator Caller — $15.50
• Senior Citizen (over 70) including subscription to Trapper Predator Caller — $10.50
• Lifetime membership — $250
• Lifetimer subscription to Trapper Predator Caller — $10.50
Dues entitles members to all newsletters, meeting notices, discount entry to workshops and the annual rendezvous. All monies are used to protect your right to trap.
Complete membership application on first page of association section and send dues to:
WSTA
(A non-profit organization.)
PO Box 3687
Arlington, WA 98223
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
You’re probably all wondering what happened with our bill, HB1137, that we asked you all to call in to your legislators about.
The bill along with HB1138, another trapping bill, did not make it out of Committee and so is dead for this session. That sounds bad but not as bad as it could be. The bill is alive in that it will be pre-introduced into the legislature in next years session. This gives us a year to talk to people about the bill, not only legislators but also groups that can help us.
The reason the bill did not make it out of Committee is that it was apparent that an amendment was going to be added to the bill that would have had the effect of outlawing the sale of fur by trappers but would have required trappers to process fur from animals trapped and donate it to the WDFW. It looked like there were enough votes for this amendment, so it was held in Committee so we would have another shot next year.
If you called your legislators and pestered your friends, relatives and business associates to do the same, I thank you. All that work did not go to waste. If you can line up more people to support us by calling in support of the bill it will help all the more. Things are just getting started. We have a lot of work to do.
On a related note Dave Ware has been replaced in his position in WDFW. Not sure at this time about his replacement but Dave was not particularly helpful on some issues we talked to him about, especially the Fur Dealers license. Hopefully we will get someone easier to work with.
George Brady and I had a meeting with the Hunter Education People at WDFW. George did most of the talking. The Department wants us to take a larger role in Trapper Education. You probably thought we were doing it all now. Not quite but close. George is putting a program together where we would also handle any requests to Challenge the course outside of the classes. One of the key things we need to make this work is more instructors. George will put on a program about becoming an instructor at the Spring Business meeting.
I’ve talked in the past about Fur Dealers and WSTA taking over the CITES tagging program. I’m not sure that this will happen, at least for the time being. Dave Ware basically torpedoed the idea by refusing to reduce the Fur Dealers license. The whole thing just will not work if we cannot encourage more people to buy fur. That’s a tough sell at the present price of a license.
We had the Fort Borst Park Fur Sale and the Atholl ID fur sale on the same day. I’ll take the blame for that scheduling mistake. I’ll try to do better next year.
I spent the day at the Fort Borst Park sale. Things seemed to go pretty well. I can’t say what kind of prices were paid. I was very busy excepting fur for NAFA. I never had a chance to really talk with a lot of people I wish I could have set down with and BSed with for a while. Those that were there seemed to understand. I had a number of people congratulate me on how well things went.
I really can take no credit. A lot of people made it work. Steve Brownell, Ralph, Bobbie, Darrel Druzianich, Karen Parker and a special thanks to Ken Payne’s daughter Heather who I drafted to take care of lunch.
Can’t forget Amanda Platoni who crafted the beautiful beaver and fox vest we presented to Amanda Emerson, Miss Rodeo Washington 2011.
Spring Business meeting is on May 14 at the Mt Si Senior Center in North Bend. Hope to see you there.
— Bruce Vandervort
VICE PRESIDENT WEST’S REPORT
Well our Legislation has started and our President Bruce Vandervort is in Olympia working hard this season on your behalf. It seems like every time I email or call him he says: I have an appointment at the legislature that day. If you haven’t met Bruce make some time and thank him for all of his work he is doing on your behalf. Also Bobbie and Mike Thorniley are two other people that need to be thanked also for all of their endless work that they do for wildlife and your interest. Also George Brady is always in Olympia working on your behalf too so please contact these people and thank them for their work. This trapping season seems to be pretty good for our members and I here that the furs are stacking up and our members are getting some real good prices too. Talk about that, we had our fur sale on the 26th of February and the turned out was pretty good with quit a few members showing up plus the prices where okay.
We had a small auction there as usual and it brought in some well needed revenue. Some real nice items were there like cage traps and even a used handcock beaver trap that went for a fair price. Miss Rodeo was there and Bruce presented her with a real nice Fur Vest made from beaver and red fox.
I talked with George Brady the other day he is our Trapper Training Ed guy and he said that he had a Trappers Ed Class over in Eastern Washington and he had 27 people attend. He said that was the most he had outside of our Trappers Rendezvous Convention. He also said that we got 13 new members of the 23 which means all single people joined and someone from every family joined. For you people that what to fur trap contact George and attend the next class.
George is also a Fur Buyer for you new trappers and those that did not know. He buys fur several ways including raw and on the carcass. He told me: I see a lot less fur coming in this year from trapper, probably because of higher gas prices but expect fur to do very well on most types this season. He also said that this season is going to end with very good prices on most stuff.
In February issue we told you that George Sovie passed away. Well to bring you updated George did a wonderful thing for the association. He put the association in his will and left us in real good shape financially. He left us his entire trapping supply business. Bruce, Ralph and I did an inventory last month and we have a lot of trapping stuff. We have a huge inventory and we thought of a couple of ways to sell this stuff off. One way is we are thinking of having a one day auction open to all members and all dealers. We also are thinking about selling some or all of these items at our summer Rendezvous. If you’re a dealer and interested in purchasing the whole inventory or want to be go into the business and be a new supplier and would like a list of these items you can contact Ralph or me for the list.
Spring Business Meeting will be in a couple of months so I would like to remind you that all members are welcome to attend. Here is where we will most likely decide on where to sell the trapping supplies that George Sovie left us. I would also like to remind you that this is where committees are formed and business is done. I am looking for some people that would like to be on the Award Committee so if you’re interested please contact me. We have several County Representative positions open so if you are interested let us know. For you new members and young members come to the business meeting and watch, learn and get involved. To learn more about our meetings, workshops and rendezvous, check out our website at www.watrappers.com
We are also soliciting nominations for the awards so remember your good trapping buddies this season. The purpose of the awards is to identify and recognize active participating members of the WSTA and others for their skills, involvement, work and dedication that contributes to a growing, prosperous organization. Nominations will be accepted from all members up until the Spring Business Meeting. The awards in each category will be presented at the 2011 Rendezvous. Please select your nomination for the WSTA Annual Awards and give them to either your County Representative or Regional Director so they can bring them to the spring business meeting or send your nominations to the Award Committee Chairman John Consolini
Awards are: 1) Trapper of the year, 2) Public Relations, 3) Professional Land Trapper, 4) Professional Water Trapper, 5) Outstanding County Representative, 6) Outstanding Wildlife Agent, 7) Hall of Fame.
As you know or if you don’t, I am working on a book about Washington State Trappers and the Association. I am looking for old newsletters, notes from meeting, pictures of Grandpa’s fur catch etc. I have most of all of the WSTA Newsletters since the organization was form except I am missing newsletter from 1972 to 1976. If you have these lying around or if someone you know has passed on and you think this kind of stuff is up in the attic, I would be interested in it. Contact me if you have anything that you would like to donate. If you would like to be part of this book, I have a questioner letter that I would like to know about you or your Dad or Grandpa or uncle or your mentor. So contact me and I will send it out.
February my daughter Tania and I were invited by a Boy Scout Leader to do a talk on trapping. It was a small group of teenagers with a few of them showing some real interest in trapping. We talked about our trapping history in Washington State, brought out some fur and traps. It turned out pretty good that even one of the other Boy Scout leaders came over and sat in on our demo. If you ever get a chance to talk trapping in schools or at a Boy Scout group do so, so we can keep our heritage alive.
Well the wife and I are taking off for six to seven weeks and we are going to do a road trip to see our great country. Our daughter will run our wildlife business while we are gone. She has turned out to be one real good trapper for sure and it’s not just dad’s opinion. She’s been hunting, fishing and trapping with me since she was a little girl and now she has turned out to be great adult. She caught a sixty-five pound beaver a couple of months ago in a live trap and she had no problem handling it either. Well that’s all I have for now, from this Old Trapper, keep your traps working and the fur piling up. Remember fur is a nature resource and should never be wasted.
— John R. Consolini
