Evart, Mich. — A party atmosphere prevailed when the Michigan Trappers and Predator Callers Association held its annual convention here Aug. 17-18. A steady procession of a variety of people strolled through the gate all looking happy and content. They flocked to the Osceola County Fairgrounds here to attend the trapping demonstrations at an attractively arranged temporary wetland near an equally transient cornfield. The overriding message their presence gave was a simple one: The sport of trapping is alive and well.
Convention coordinator Joe Velchansky estimated that a thousand people would attend the convention. And the vendors present offered a full assortment of goods. They had displays of traps, lures, furs, trapping and calling DVDs. The weekend also featured skinning and trapping demonstrations, children’s games, a trap setting contest and raffles.
John Caretti, who offered a seminar on beaver trapping, said trappers haven’t always been so willing to share their knowledge. Back when he began trapping, Caretti said, more people were trapping for a living. Trappers were secretive. Competition could have a direct effect on their income. Now, Caretti said, fewer people are trapping for a living. They’re doing it for their love of the sport. As a result, they’re actively recruiting new members to their ranks.
Caretti, who edits the association’s newsletter, was manning a booth where children were stopping to sign up for a chance to win a prize. It was part of MTPCA’s mentoring and recruitment program. The organization offers a small token to youngsters who enter a raffle for a larger prize. The larger prize consists of things a young person needs to get involved in the sport: a trap or two, lures – items of that nature.
The MTPCA kids raffle has been an annual event for at least 15 years now, Caretti said. Usually about 140 children enter.
Youth are important to Caretti.
“Trappers are family oriented,” he said. “They love kids.” He lauds trapping as a way to get young people outside and enjoying nature.
Caretti began trapping many years ago when his family moved from Pennsylvania to Sterling Heights. The area was still a relatively rural area then, Caretti said. His father had done a little trapping while growing up in Pennsylvania. He gave both Caretti and his brother a trap and showed them how to make muskrat sets. After a few days, Caretti’s brother grew bored with the operation and sold his trap to Caretti.
“Just like that,” Caretti said, “I doubled the size of my trap line.”
He soon began catching muskrats, and he became enamored with the sport. Now he is well known in Michigan trapping circles. A picture of his daughter holding a muskrat once appeared on the cover of Michigan’s Hunting and Trapping Digest. Caretti was also in the photo. The photographer asked if it was OK if he blurred Caretti out. Caretti said he should if he wanted people to study the pamphlet. His daughter, now an adult, is still his trapping partner.
The MTCPA members all seem very aware of trapping’s rich tradition. Historians claim that as far back as the Ice Age, people were trapping. The fur they obtained helped them survive the cold.
After Europeans began their making their forays into North America, furs became an important export commodity. And, as trappers fanned out across the continent, besides sending pelts back to Europe, they often smoothed the path for future settlement.
The role trappers play in conservation is a theme Dorr trapper and MTPCA board member Chris Kettler emphasized. Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, the Natural Resources Commission and the MTPCA – with its membership of about 800 – all focus on the scientific management of furbearing animals, Kettler said. He added that furbearing animals are often in boom and bust cycles. They overpopulate, and then disease runs rampant. Suddenly, they’re nearly non-existent. Kettler said that Allegan County once lost 80 percent of its raccoon population when feline distemper tore through the area. A person could walk through cornfields and see dead and dying raccoons. Trappers, he emphasized, play an important role in wildlife management.
The objectives of the MTPCA are clear and spelled out on the organization’s website. The group exists to protect the rights of those who harvest surplus fur-bearing animals, to promote conservation education and to assist the DNR in wildlife management.
Those interested in learning more can visit the MTPCA Web site, www.mtpca.com. Both youth and adult membership options are available.
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