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Originally Posted by 6.5swedeforelk
An interesting read!
I never realized that non-utilization of traplines was an actual fact.
Time to start taking note of the fur royalty receipts?
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Oh it's a fact on some lines, no doubt about that.
And SRD is well aware of that.
Trapping used to be about making a living.
Because the returns are so low, these days, for most trappers, it's a hobby, nothing more.
You can't force people to work for nothing.
Some hot heads seem to think trapper work for SRD. That is simply not the case. Trappers are self employed.
It is up to each individual trapper to decide what he traps and how much he traps. Within the law of course.
If the money isn't there, and it isn't these days for most traplines, then that trapper will find other employment to supplement his trapping, or he will give up trapping altogether.
There are not a lot of jobs that fit well with trapping as a side income. And in many places no jobs at all that fit with trapping.
It's not nearly as simple as it seems to those who have never done it.
I figured it out one time that as a trapper I was making about half what a kid working in McDonald's would make for the time I put in.
There are a lot of factors that aren't apparent to those looking in from the outside. There is wild fluctuations in fur prices, there are weather factors.
There is the expense of fuel and equipment. There is animal populations fluctuations.
All these things and more must be taken into consideration when deciding what where and when to trap. If trappers did what some hunters expect them to do, most trappers would soon starve to death.