President — Gary Helms, 1092 Vanderbilt Rd., Texarkana, AR 71854; phone: 870-772-3834; e-mail: Arkansastrappers@aol.com
Vice President — Aaron Hitchcock, 9331 Sister Ln., Mulberry, AR 72947; phone: 479-997-8401
Secretary/Treasurer — Karen Davis, 1350 Hwy 70 E, DeQueen, AR 71832; phone: 870-642-3674
NTA Director — Mike Fischer, 13823 Masoner Rd., Lonsdale, AR 72087; phone: 501-939-2325
Editor — Bill Fields, 543 Riverbend Rd.,
Mammoth Spring, AR 72554; phone: 870-625-7457; e-mail: bcfields@ortrackm.missouri.org
Membership Options:
• Individual membership including subscription to The Trapper & Predator Caller — $20
• Family membership with subscription — $25
Complete membership application on first page of
association section and send dues to:
ATA, Secretary/Treasurer
Karen Davis
1350 Hwy 70 E, DeQueen, AR 71832
www.arkansastrappers.org
EDITOR’S REPORT
This is Oct. 17 with a little frost along Spring River. I enjoy sitting outside in a lawn chair while drinking my morning coffee and this morning a light jacket was needed in order to feel comfortable. It felt great. I am sure that I was grinning from ear to ear. I like seeing frost this early as it helps to prime up the fur. I have a couple of large red oaks in my yard and they sure have been dropping a lot of leaves over the last couple of days.
Lots of mast for the wildlife this year, but squirrels are scarce in most areas. With mast being close to non-existent over at least half the state last year, they either starved or migrated out. The soft mast is especially good. Grapes and persimmons are really heavy, and there is a moderate crop of muscadines. All wildlife benefit when the food source is available in such quantities.
The White River Toe Pinchers had their fall picnic on Oct. 4 with not a very heavy turnout, but we had a great time. Nice fall weather made for an enjoyable outing with good food and visiting. Our auction brought in almost $70 to help us operate and do things to promote trapping. We have a small group in the chapter, but we have some mighty fine folks. Of course, there are some of the nicest folks in the world within the whole trapping community. I have said this before and I will say it again.
We can all certainly hope that the price of gas continues to drop as it has recently. I do think that it is going to drop below $2, but how long it will stay there is anybody’s guess. I have word from a reliable source that it is currently $2.05 in Springfield, Mo. With the economy in such a mess, we need some relief somewhere.
By the time you read this report, we will have elected a new president and I hope that you voted and voted for the right one; not the one that is for gun control please. There is so much unrest in our country, but thinking back, it has always been this way to a certain extent during an election year. Folks are so unsure of what the future holds. This time it is worse because of all the banks going belly up and Wall Street being topsy-turvy.
We live in a computer world now and news from anywhere gets to us almost instantly. This is unlike in the past where it might take weeks or even months for us to hear about a happening elsewhere in the world. Lets all pray that things settle down and the fur markets remain stable and we can have another profitable season. I remain optimistic that it will happen.
I still like a little work having all my trapping equipment ready to go. This is a fun time though, knowing that the trapping is just mere weeks away. I have a friend doing some repair work on my canoe. The last fishing trip I went on, I noticed a small leak and since I depend heavily on the craft in trapping season, I needed to get it repaired. All for now.
— Bill Fields
