Local trapper educates youths

   During my six years working as a Fish and Wildlife officer in Alberta, I have had many unforgettable experiences and encountered many unforgettable people; unfortunately, some of these remain in my memory because of negative results that stemmed from negative circumstances. However, the following story reflects a positive outcome that was achieved through the good heart, effort, and drive of one individual to see our wildlife resources and the people who enjoy them prevail. 

   On January 13, 2006, I received a complaint from a local acreage owner stating that over the Christmas holidays while walking along the creek, one of her children found a fox suffering with a broken leg caught in an illegal leg hold trap. The child attempted to spread the jaws of the trap and release the fox, but was not strong enough, so decided to remove the entire trap from the tree and free the fox, still dragging the trap behind it. Upon arriving home and hearing the story from her child, she called a neighbour who was able to track the injured fox and end its suffering. 

   The ensuing investigation resulted in evidence that supported charges of hunting without a licence contrary to the Wildlife Act, against two youths that lived in the area. Neither youth had a Fur Management Licence that would permit them to harvest furbearing animals in Alberta. 

   The regular process would have been to serve the youths summonses to appear in provincial court and, if found guilty, pay a fine between zero and $50,000 and serve a one-year recreational hunting licence suspension. After giving the matter some thought, I felt an alternative approach might be more suitable. 

   Enter Gordy Klassen, President of the Alberta Trappers Association (ATA), and senior licence holder of Registered Fur Management Area (RFMA) 72 near Debolt, Alberta. I met Gordy once before, three years ago at an ATA seminar in Edson, where he was speaking to our group regarding some changes he felt were necessary for the ATA to make to sustain “true” trapping in Alberta. I was impressed with what he was trying to achieve, encouraged with the passion and happy to have him sitting as president of the ATA. Thinking back to that first meeting, and considering my options relating to the current situation, I was confident that Gordy would be able to work with me to achieve a positive outcome for these youths and influence their future contributions to Alberta’s natural resources. 

   I was right! Gordy not only supported the enforcement alternatives available to me under the Wildlife Act for unique situations such as this, he offered to take these youths under his guidance for an experience on his trapline. Section 97 of the Wildlife Act gives the court authority, by way of a court order, to have an individual comply with conditions that the court considers appropriate for securing the person’s good conduct and for preventing that person from repeating the offence or committing other offences against the act. 

   On February 27, 2006, both youths appeared in Grande Prairie Provincial Court and plead guilty to hunting without a licence. Rather than receiving a recreational hunting licence suspension and being assessed a fine, Judge J.N.G. Mitchell issued a court order. The order required that the two youths attend RFMA 72 with Gordy Klassen for two full days between February 28 and March 31, 2006, for the purposes of learning and observing proper, legal, and ethical trapping techniques and fur handling practices. Upon completion of those two days on the trapline, the youths were required to complete a typed essay summarizing their experience relative to what put them into the current situation and what they learned from it. The essays were required to be completed and turned in to me for review by June 30, 2006, where they would then be published in the Alberta Game Warden magazine, and the Alberta Trappers Association Magazine, in an effort to have other youths read and learn from their experience. 

   The following are the essays written by the youths. In addition to the efforts of Gordy Klassen, I would also like to recognize the support and express my appreciation of two local teachers that took the time to review these essays and offer some advice to the youths in completing the projects. 

Thank-you to Valentin Borisenko of Sexsmith Secondary School and to Evelyn Malina of Harry Balfour School. 

Kelly Moran is a member of the Alberta 
Game Warden Association in Grande Prairie.

The path to discovery

   Whenever laws are broken, where traps and snares are involved, there is usually a negative impact for all trappers and our industry. It doesn’t matter if the person who set the snare or trap was a legitimate trapper, a poacher or from an animal rights group with a fanatic and desperate agenda. In the public eye it has a negative impact on legitimate trappers. This can happen even when no laws are broken. When people unfamiliar with trapping stumble across a set and find a trapped animal, or when a hiker’s dog sticks his head or foot into a legally set snare or trap, right or wrong the impact can often be quite negative. Most animal damage control people, fur trappers and their associations are very sensitive to this. 

   At the beginning of February, 2006, Fish and Wildlife Officer Kelly Moran called and told me that he had followed up on a report of illegal trapping and upon investigation had to charge a couple of young fellows with trapping without a licence. He said there were grounds for other charges and, although it was easiest to write a summons and let the court impose a sentence and collect fines, he felt that these two young guys had the potential to be good solid outdoorsmen and he didn’t want to disillusion them. Kelly didn’t say it but I think he took a liking to Roy and Al, much the same as I would a little later on. 

Left to right: 
Gordy Klassen, Al, Roy (identities withheld) and Fish and Wildlife officer Kelly Moran

   Nevertheless, laws had been broken and both Roy and Al had to understand the consequences of acting illegally. Kelly told me that there was room to move on this with some alternative sentencing and asked me if I had any ideas or could help. I recognized the problem for the boys, Kelly and the negative aspect this would have with the public. But I also was well aware of just how busy I was at that time. But Kelly was persuasive and as we chatted about our meeting in Edson a couple years before and of his moving to Grande Prairie, I realized that Kelly, with his recent move and new posting, had more than enough to do. He didn’t need to be calling me, but he wanted to help a couple of young guys who he thought would turn out to be good trappers someday. It woke me up a little. 

   But as far as ideas went, I have to admit at first that I kind of drew a blank. Then almost off handedly I said, “Why don’t I take these guys out on my trapline for a couple days. I’ll work them hard, show them a little about fur handling and trapping and maybe I can make them understand the consequences that this has for all the hard working and honest trappers out there when someone breaks the law.” 

   After a little discussion on the details, Kelly liked the idea and suggested that we cap the process with the boys each writing an essay on their experience. Besides being kind hearted, Kelly is also a good PR man and he sold me on the idea. 

   Kelly made the request and the judge sentenced the two boys to two days with me. Meanwhile, I had time to think a little bit about this and about my own past. I started trapping without a licence when I was eleven. Before that, my brother Roy and I had been shooting squirrels when we were so small that we couldn’t pull the bolt back on our old Cooey Model 39. Dad put a big ball of tape on the back of the bolt so that we could use both hands to cock it. For three years, until I turned 14, Dad bought a trapping licence and sold our fur for us. Before we graduated from high school we were snowshoeing 35 miles every weekend, pulling a toboggan and sleeping in a lean-to all winter long. We loved what we were doing and I know that I set traps where I shouldn’t have, but our enthusiasm was a heck of a motivator. I remember one winter when Fish and Wildlife were doing an aerial moose count. My brother and I had to keep an eye out for them and stand under a tree when they would fly at low level over us. The only difference between Roy and Al and me at that age was that I never got caught. It made me think a lot about how trapping affected me and how it helped me mature as an adult and how my love for trapping and my experiences in the bush have helped guide me through most of my life. 

   Trapping has changed in many aspects and so have the opportunities for people who want to be trappers. To be able to join that fascinating fraternity of unequalled woodsmen is getting more difficult with each passing year. Thinking about all of this helped me gain a lot of respect for Kelly Moran’s vision and what he had put together. 

   One thing led to another and before I knew it, the second last day of the wolf season, March 30, had arrived. Early in the morning, Roy and Al were driven to my place by Roy’s mother. It turned out that she had gone to the same school as I had and comes from a very well respected family that has been in our community for decades.

   Kelly showed up a few minutes later and I put the boys to work moving firewood for my skinning shed and about 40 coyotes and wolves that needed to be skinned. While they were busily engaged, I had coffee with Roy’s mother and Kelly and explained to them what I wanted to do and to make sure that they were okay with it. For the rest of the day the boys and I worked in the skinning shed, skinning, fleshing and stretching beavers and coyotes. Kelly stayed and worked with us until noon and then went back to Grande Prairie after lunch at my house. 

   The boys worked hard and each had their turn at skinning, fleshing and stretching. I was behind on my skinning and it had to be done so the two young fellows and I went through a lot of fur. They went at it like troopers and never complained. After they left that night I finished up a few more pieces and when they got back the next morning we had to stretch those and turn all of the coyote hides. Because of that we were a little late getting out to my trapline. I had a few roadkilled moose and deer with me that I had permission to leave for my wolves. I don’t use road-killed animals for bait, but I do use them to hold wolves in an area. Even though the season was over, I still like to take free meals to my wolves. Winter can be hard on them and in March the breeding season is on. The alpha male and female are usually off honeymooning and without leadership the rest of the pack can get into a lot of trouble as well as having a harder time scrounging food. Besides that, it makes more sense to me to feed a road killed animal than have the pack pull down any more pregnant moose than necessary. 

   Handling a thousand pound frozen moose is a lot of work, but Roy and Al pitched in. They helped load the road-kills from my trailer and into my skimmer and then followed me on another snowmobile. In no time at all we had them delivered out into large open cut blocks and other areas where the wolves could come in and safely feed. We stopped at my south cabin and lit a fire in the stove and then started checking and closing the loops on the snares at the many different bait stations in the area. Near the end we found two nice wolves caught in some thick bush. We took some pictures and then Roy and Al helped me pack them the 100 metres through deep snow out to my sled. 

   After the snares were all closed and hung up we had lunch at the cabin and then headed out to the truck. We loaded up and came home. It was evening when we got home. We unloaded and got back into the skinning shed. We hung more fur to thaw out and started skinning what wasn’t frozen. When Roy’s mother came, the boys looked pretty tired but very confident and very pleased with themselves. On the way back from the trapline I mentioned that I could use a little help next year. They were onto that little idea faster than a raven on a gut pile. 

   I think Roy and Al took home a new appreciation for ethics, wieners and beans, wildlife, the bush, trapping and trappers. For me the experience was excellent. I was surprised at how I felt when Roy’s mother pulled out of our yard with the two boys grinning away, arguing with each other and hanging onto their bags of wolf, beaver, coyote and other skulls. 

   Trapping has been under a lot pressure from a lot groups these past few years, not the least of them being government itself. The ATA has been busy trying to take steps to ensure that this tradition carries on for decades to come. I have been in the middle of this struggle for a while now and it can get easy to forget about the real reasons for loving trapping. Thanks to Roy, Al and especially Fish and Wildlife Officer Kelly Moran. I was given a very positive reminder.

Gordy Klassen

   On December 16, 2005, I was getting ready for school. I walked into the entrance of our house when I noticed two red foxes after my cat Ki-Ki. My cat was cornered in a pine tree in our back yard. I ran outside to chase the two foxes away and they ran off quickly. Then I continued on to school. The next morning one fox came back and cornered Ki-Ki. 

   The following day, I called my friend Roy to ask if he would help me get rid of the foxes, and he said okay. I had some snares and a foothold trap which I had gotten from my Uncle Dave years ago. We went to the creek, which is where I thought the foxes would be. I had thought the easiest way to trap the foxes would be to use rib bones from the past hunting season. Four days passed and we had no luck. The fifth day came along and we had trapped one fox. On the ninth day the traps had disappeared. 

   About a month later, I had a visit from Fish and Wildlife Officer Kelly Moran. He came to inquire if I had any knowledge of illegal trapping at the creek. The officer told us about a woman reporting to them that a fox was in a trap with a broken leg. They had to euthanize the fox so that it would not suffer. They had confiscated all the snares and the traps I had used were outdated. I admitted to trapping at the creek. The officer then read me my rights. I was charged with trapping without a licence. Two days later I went to the Fish and Wildlife office and wrote the exam. I passed and now I have my trapping licence. 

   I attended court and the judge said I had to write an essay of 500 words. I was provided with an opportunity to go out with a registered trapper (Gordy Klassen) for the weekend to learn from a professional. I had a wonderful time. I learned to skin, wash and board the hides of coyote, wolf and beaver. The next day we used snowmobiles to check the snares on the trapline. We found we had trapped two wolves. The season was ending so we tipped 250 snares. Gordy suggested that my friend Roy and I could help him with his trapline next year. It was awesome to go out and be educated in the proper, legal and ethical trapping techniques of a professional. When I think back to the way the fox had to suffer, I really regret my methods. 

   The whole experience was a life lesson and I learned a lot of things that should and should not be done. I really love being in the forest and having the wildlife around me. I will always think about the things I have learned and I will never forget this experience. I think that my future in trapping will be very successful.

Allan

   It was a couple weeks before Christmas when my friend called me and asked if I wanted to help him set some traps because some foxes were trying to kill his cat. We had set the traps and then the next day we went to check the traps and we had gotten nothing. My friend had some rib cages at his house and I had one that was left over from the hunting season, so we took them down to where we had the traps set at and left them there for bait. 

   For two days we had caught nothing, but on the fifth day we caught a fox. After finding it we took it back to my friend’s house to skin it. Checking the traps eventually got boring so I stopped going with my friend. My buddy called me sometime before New Years and told me that someone had a taken a few traps on Boxing Day. In the second or third week of January a Fish and Wildlife Officer showed up on my doorstep and asked me if I was missing some traps. He asked me some more questions and asked to speak to one of my parents. That day he called my mom at work and asked her whether he could come by and ask some questions and discuss what was taking place with this trapping. 

   Kelly Moran from the Fish and Wildlife Division came over to talk to my parents and me, and at that point he told us that he was going to take a legal statement in the investigation of trapping with bait on private land. It involved someone who had come across a live, trapped fox. A legal statement is where I tell what happened or what had taken place. Kelly told me that I had the right to have a lawyer present or consult with my parents at any time throughout the investigation. 

   Kelly asked all about my hunting in the fall and what licences I had for hunting. Through this part I found out that I didn’t have the proper licence for bow and arrow hunting. I also discovered that I could not be hunting with a large bore rifle because I was under 14, and that to be trapping you must have a licence. I also learned that when trapping or hunting you need the owner’s permission to be on the land. Through this process I was very scared and worried. At one point I had not told Kelly the truth because I thought it would cause one more charge. As Kelly was closing off the statement, he asked if there was anything else I would like to say. I felt frazzled and was very nervous. At this point Kelly ask me if I would like to speak to my parents. I decided that I would, so I told my parents that I hadn’t told the truth about the fox we had caught. They advised me if I had lied on anything that this was the time to confess before it was too late. We went back to where Kelly was sitting and I told him that I had lied about the fox. We hadn’t thrown it into the bush; instead, we had taken it to my friend’s house. Kelly asked me why I had lied. I told him I didn’t want any more charges against us. He informed me it would have involved more charges because it would have been considered wasting an animal or animal parts. However, you were at least trying to do something with the fox. After he had asked me the list of questions, he told my parents and me that he would come back in a few days and tell us what charges I had against me and when I would have to go to court. When he came back he gave me three written warnings: one for not having a proper bow and arrow licence, one for trapping without the land owner’s permission and the other was for hunting with a large calibre rifle while being under age. He told me I would have to appear in court for trapping without a licence. The sentence could be loss of hunting privileges for up to five years and a fine of up to $50,000 if I was an adult. Since I wasn’t of legal age, he would recommend a sentence of less than that. 

   There was just over a month from the court date. The court date was February 27 and I was very nervous about it. The court date had come very quickly. It was one of the coldest days of the winter and I think one of the most miserable too. Before I knew it, I was in the courtroom and at the stand. The judge asked me if I wanted the help of a lawyer. I faintly blurted out, “No”. 

   When he asked me how I would plead, he said it in a way I didn’t understand. After he asked me a couple of times, my mother came up to tell me what he meant. She told him that I pleaded guilty. At that point the Crown lawyer handed my mother and the judge a piece of paper with a court order that explained my sentence. I was required to spend two days on a trapline with Gordy Klassen, plus write a 500 word essay.

   My friend was asked up to the front and went through his hearing with ease. We went to Kelly’s office and were given a paper that had the outlines to write the essay. My parents drove me to school right after court, and some of my friends asked where I had been, so I told them. 

   In the next month or so Kelly set a date for me and my friend to go to the trap line with Gordy Klassen. In March we met with Mr. Klassen early in the morning and we were put right to work. Our first task was moving wood behind the skinning shack and then we moved some coyotes and black wolves to the heated shop. Two of the wolves were no good because the birds had pecked at them, and the coyotes had to be thawed and skinned. Gordy taught us how to skin and flesh coyotes properly. By the end of the day, we had skinned three coyotes. The second day he told us we would be going out on the trapline and we were going to check snares and would show us how to hang them. It was around noon when we left Gordy’s house to go to the trapline. When we got to where he parked his truck, we got out and put on coats and boots. We went to go get the snowmobiles and it took about ten minutes to get them going. Then we drove them up to the truck and unloaded one of the two moose and an elk that Gordy had permission to take off the highway. We unloaded the elk before leaving and took along with us the other equipment that we needed. 

   We drove the sleds up to the first cabin that was only about two or three kilometres away. When we made it to the cabin, we took out some food from the toboggan. We made a fire so that when we got back from going around the lake it would be warm in the cabin, in case one of our sleds fell through the ice. In the first group of snares there was little sign that wolves had been there and we never saw anything in the snares. We took the sled across the lake, which was only about one hundred metres to the next group of snares. We found nothing in those snares, and it was very hard to hang them up because there were low, thick clumps of willows. In the next group of snares we found two okay looking wolves; one was a female and the other one a male, I think. Before we could put the wolves in the toboggan, we had to drop off the moose. There were hundreds of tracks around where the last moose had been. 

   After we had put the wolves in the toboggan we headed back to the cabin and had lunch. When we got back to the cabin we discovered that there was some old grizzly tracks near the cabin. Gordy made wieners and beans for us and we had cheese burgers that were left over from lunch on Saturday. 

   Through this lesson in life I have learned that I have to be responsible for my own actions, I have to stop and think what I’m planning to do, or about to do and whether it is right or wrong.

Roy