Caribou recovery and effective methods to deal with wolves en masse?

[Wild one]

A good wolf trapper can be down right impressive but most trappers don’t have the same skill level. Even those that most think are good really only fall under OK

Unfortunately most trappers dont become skilled wolf trappers because of the time, work, amount of bait, and the knowledge needed to become efficient vs the profit is low compared to other species. For this reason most only dedicate a small portion of their effort into wolves

Then add in the BC governments piss poor management of traplines leading to a lot of areas going un trapped and trappers having difficulty even finding a line it don’t help. You guys think hunting is miss managed in BC trapping is out right neglected

[Bugle M In]

^^^^^This.
I know talking to the GO where I hunt elk that he was really upset with the trapper that had this line for years as he never was interested in taking wolves.

And most veteran trappers say that a wolf is the hardest creature to trap.
Lots of extra effort needed for that compared to martin trapping that's for sure.

[Wild one]

^^^^^This.
I know talking to the GO where I hunt elk that he was really upset with the trapper that had this line for years as he never was interested in taking wolves.

And most veteran trappers say that a wolf is the hardest creature to trap.
Lots of extra effort needed for that compared to martin trapping that's for sure.

Did the GO put in effort to work something out with the trapper? And I am not talking $

Most have no clue what it takes to run a line

[Bugle M In]

Honestly, I can't say what he attempted.
All he said is that he had spoken with the trapper several times about trapping wolves in the area and that
the Trapper seemed/said that he was "not interested" in trapping them.
(Sounded like the Trapper could care less about the wolves being around, from what I gathered)

I have been told my someone that there "may have been a change" in Trappers in the area?
Until I ever talk to the GO, I wont know for sure.

But you do make a good point, I seriously doubt the GO was going to throw cash the trappers way to
"help the cause".
But it has cost the GO, as his elk hunts the past 3 or 4 seasons has been virtually NIL in success!?????
The only thing he managed to do was gain a few extra goat permits because there was a lack of hunters
putting in for LEH up there (used to be 0.5:1 odds for years, which was my beef with it being leh at all),
Now, he gained 5 or 6 permits and odds are 1:1.

Thing is, where he hunts goat much of the time, those goats in winter time come down very low.
And they tend to winter on some ground that the wolves use as a natural pinch point for other prey.
So, he could see issues with his goat hunts if he doesn't pay attention to the wolves in the area.
But sounded like the trapper "just didn't want to"???

[Wild one]

It’s not always a matter of $ it takes time to cut trails, a lot of wolf trapping strategies involve 10x the bait that trapper would use for the season otherwise, beefed up snares, footholds for wolf are $100+ a trap, and patterning the wolves is needed. Lots of ways to offer assistance that might motivate a trapper but some guys just can’t be motivated as well

I know the physical work also stops some of the old trappers

There is plenty of guys who would trap wolves to some extent but it’s no easy to get a line even with many being inactive

[Bugle M In]

It’s not always a matter of $ it takes time to cut trails, a lot of wolf trapping strategies involve 10x the bait that trapper would use for the season otherwise, beefed up snares, footholds for wolf are $100+ a trap, and patterning the wolves is needed. Lots of ways to offer assistance that might motivate a trapper but some guys just can’t be motivated as well

I know the physical work also stops some of the old trappers

There is plenty of guys who would trap wolves to some extent but it’s no easy to get a line even with many being inactive

All good points for HBC members to know (me included as I hadn't given that part much thought!)

[338win mag]

It’s not always a matter of $ it takes time to cut trails, a lot of wolf trapping strategies involve 10x the bait that trapper would use for the season otherwise, beefed up snares, footholds for wolf are $100+ a trap, and patterning the wolves is needed. Lots of ways to offer assistance that might motivate a trapper but some guys just can’t be motivated as well

I know the physical work also stops some of the old trappers

There is plenty of guys who would trap wolves to some extent but it’s no easy to get a line even with many being inactive

Yeah, good point there wild one, I think I will seek out a local trapper and offer to help him cut trails or whatever to help them out, I had a trappers licence almost 40 years ago now, lol, but I'm still a good saw man.

[northof49]

Gov funded bounty!! $1200 per wolf would help motivate trappers and hunters.

[Wild one]

Gov funded bounty!! $1200 per wolf would help motivate trappers and hunters.

Yup and I bet if you cut that in half it would still work

[Salix]

I attended the meeting in Revelstoke and the biologist said the main source of caribou deaths was wolves. After the meeting I was able to read the draft herd plan for the Columbia North herd which stated that the main predator cause of caribou deaths for the Columbia North here was bears, black and grizzly. No one seems to be discussing the grizzly impacts to the caribou herds.