Fur prices are up, and so is interest in trapping.
The renewed interest in the fur trade, arguably Canada's oldest land-based industry, led to big crowds at the Saskatchewan Trappers Association (STA) annual convention, held in Humboldt February 22-23.
Over 100 people took in the convention's trade show and luncheon on February 22, and about 150 were expected to attend the trade show, demonstrations, classes and competitions like the beaver skinning challenge on February 23.
"Fur prices have gone through the roof," reported Don Gordon, newly re-elected president of the STA in an interview with the Journal on February 23.
Coyote pelts are averaging close to $90 each, up from about $75 each last year, and the price of muskrats has gone up, too, to about $14 each.
The difference this year with muskrats, said Gordon, a trapper from the Nipawin area, is that the muskrats are moving well, being bought up - there aren't any lingering on the market.
That's mainly because China is buying a lot of fur from Canada this year, he said.
"They're one of the biggest players in the fur industry," Gordon stated of that country.
China has cheap labour and lots of manufacturing happening, so they're buying up Canadian furs faster than any other country, and using them to trim coats and other clothing items.
"It's getting really good," said Gordon of their trade.
And it's not just coyotes and muskrats that are selling well.
All fur-bearing species across the board except for perhaps the beaver, which is still struggling, are being bought up and cleared out.
The price of ranch-raised mink is still rising, and is averaging well over $100 per pelt, Gordon reported.
At the fur auction at the STA convention, the bundle of eight high-grade, super-select coyote pelts went for $1,400 each. Most of the highest-graded coyote pelts come from Saskatchewan, Gordon noted, which is quite an accomplishment and a statement about the health of trapping here.
A marten of Gordon's sold for $280, which will put gas in his tank for the rest of the winter, he noted.
Though they're not yet up to the prices they say in trapping's heyday in the 1980s, when a typical coyote hide went for $200, the higher prices are doing their job and generating more interest in trapping.
Sales of the trappings of trapping are also up, Gordon reported - another indicator of the increased interest and the money that's now in the activity.
And that's a good thing for all - trappers, government and environment, trappers feel.
Trapping does a lot to control animal populations in the province in a responsible way.
"Generally, when there are a lot of people out trapping, it helps control a lot of the problems we've been having... with coyotes... and even beaver," said Gordon.
The government watches to ensure populations of animals don't get too low, he added. And the government sees the value in what trappers do.
As trappers "You are as close to the land as you can be," said Minister of the Environment, Ken Cheveldayoff at the STA luncheon on February 22, attended by about 100 people.
Trappers play a key role in managing wildlife resources, he indicated. The STA, he added, is a strong advocate for trapping and the management of fur-bearing animals in the province.
When both prices and the number of people trapping are low, that's when animal populations can get out of control. When that happens, nature will take over and curb the population through starvation or disease.
Mange, Gordon noted as an example, is a disease that hits coyotes when their population gets too high.
But when prices climb a little higher like they are now, more people are getting out on traplines and bringing in furs, controlling the animal population at the same time as they're making a profit for themselves.
"Having a healthy population (of animals) is what we strive for," Gordon noted.
When there are a lot of trappers around, there's no need of a bounty like those introduced by the government in the past few years for coyotes and beavers, because the animal population doesn't get too high. Farmers don't have problems with coyotes then, Gordon explained, and municipalities aren't complaining there are too many beavers.
And unlike with a bounty, the animals aren't wasted, taken for just their tails or paws to turn in for a cash reward.
"As long as (furs) are selling, people will trap," said Gordon, which he sees as a win-win-win situation for animal populations in that it keeps them healthy, for government in that they save the money they would have paid out in bounties, and for trappers, who get to make a profit on their trade.
More and more people are seeing things from the trappers' side of things. Those who need to protect their cattle populations are getting into trapping coyotes now, Gordon noted as an example, so that they make use of the animal instead of just destroying them for getting after their cows.
"We look at it as a wise use of resources," Gordon noted.
A lot of young people are actually getting into trapping now, he said.
"This is an act that a lot of people from a younger generation had no opportunity to do (before) because their parents didn't. Now they are looking to past generations to get into it."
Trapping, he said, gets you outside in the winter, - the season starts in November, when fur-bearing animals get their winter coats - and lets you live close to the land. It's really a very healthy-living kind of activity, he said.
The increasing popularity of trapping was apparent in the number of young people and young families who wandered around the trade show at the convention this year. They came to Humboldt from all over the province - Estevan, LaRonge, Meadow Lake, and even north of Creighton - just to take in the convention. Some of the STA's special guests came in from Alberta and British Columbia as well.
Some young families use the convention as an excuse to take a family vacation in Humboldt during the winter, Gordon indicated, which benefits the city and local businesses.
A lot of people benefit from what trappers do, even though they still get a bad rap in some sectors for killing animals for their fur.
"We're looked at by some as cruel, inhumane people," he said.
But their industry has actually come a long way in improving what they use over the past few years.
Certain traps are now banned, Gordon explained, and certain methods of trapping are banned, too.
"We're the first to admit, some of our equipment was maybe not the best choices, but it was the best we had available at the time," Gordon said.
Now there are new devices - killing and restraining traps - that are a more humane way of doing things, he said.
The more an animal struggles, the more damage it does to a pelt, so it's actually to a trapper's advantage to make sure traps kill quickly and cleanly, or don't overly stress the animal, he indicated.
"We're helping the environment. We're helping people in the province... a lot of people benefit from what trappers do," Gordon noted.
One of those things is a research project on otters with which the STA is helping the Ministry of Environment - something scientist Rick Espie spoke about at the convention on February 22.
Officially titled the Boreal Watershed Management Strategy, the project has seven priority areas, including studying water quality and aquatic ecosystem health.
In order to obtain data on the latter, scientists like Espie are studying otters because they are primarily aquatic, wide ranging, and at the top of the food chain, which means any mercury or other chemicals lower down on the chain will be found within otters in high concentrations.
They are also easy to collect, as one of the Ministry's partnerships on this project is with the STA - they're getting the carcasses from trappers.
The trappers keep the skin and fur from the otters, but pass the carcass on to the Ministry's research team for a $20 profit.
It's a cost-effective and easy partnership.
"We're providing a product for scientific research that normally we would have taken back to the wild for other animals to clean up," said Gordon.
That means nothing of the otters is being wasted.
It's an easy $20 for a trapper to make, he said, and shows the government that trappers are quite open to working with them.
The study's immediate goals are to quantify metal concentrations in the fur and organs of otter from the boreal regions of the province, in order to determine if there are elevated levels of metals, especially mercury, in the system that might have adverse effects on wildlife and people.
So far, the project has collected 97 carcasses, and have over 50 already this year. They hope to collect between 200 and 250 carcasses this year and have some results of their study to report to the STA at their 2014 convention.
Another project they are working on involves wolverines, Espie said. They are trying to get a handle on the wolverine population in the province, because they are so sensitive to development and human encroachment.
These kinds of projects are important to trappers, said Gordon, as they don't want to lose any species in Saskatchewan.
Fur-bearing animals are a sustainable resource, he said, "if you look after it, you'll always have it."
It was in 1946 that Saskatchewan created fur conservation areas in the north, Gordon said. They registered trap lines in order to bring back the beaver population in the province, which had been decimated through over 300 years of uncontrolled hunting.
"They did a good job," Gordon smiled. "Now they are everywhere. That shows, with proper management, we can have these animals around (for a long time)," he said.
This year was the 44th annual STA convention, and the 10th consecutive year the STA has held it in Humboldt. They plan to be back for an 11th in 2014.
There are a good number of trappers in this area, Gordon noted, but that's not what keeps them coming back.
"When you walk into the Bella Vista (Inn, where the convention is held), and you're greeted by your first name.... what's not to like?" he asked.
"We are treated royally here."
