Pending Oregon Otter trapping Ban

[Petcoon]

Next Friday at the ODFW Commission meeting in Redmond, OR the Commission will be asked to approve furbearer regulations for the next two years.

As some of you know SB3932 makes it illegal to trap beaver in any "imperiled waterway" as designated by the DEQ. That we cannot do anything about currently.

However : Brian Wolfer at ODFW has decided that Otter trapping should be closed in those areas as well. They are saying that they are following past practice, which is true. but the past

closures were not political, they were supposedly to repopulate beaver in certain areas of national forest etc. No studies were ever done to quantify if any of those closures actually worked as

intended. This Beaver and Otter closure would encompass approximately 80% of Oregon and has no science to back it. In ODFW's own words: "Trapping has no impact on Beaver

populations in Oregon" It would be great to have any Trappers, Hunters, Fisherman show up to support not allowing the antis to have an Otter ban as well as a Beaver ban in Oregon.

The Meeting is Friday June 26, starts at 8am at the Redmond Grange #812, 707 SW Kalama Ave. Redmond, OR 97756 To testify you must register by wed at 8:00 am.

 

[BRTreedogs]

I haven’t seen a single word about this

 

[Petcoon]

About a week ago there was a meeting at ODFW headquarters with OTA President, VP and others to talk about the Beaver map that outlines the closure areas. I was told that Brian Wolfer said they would close otter in those areas as well. He is apparently afraid of any Beaver by catch, he was told Otter could be trapped at Otter toilets and avoid Beaver. He was given other possible methods restrictions to avoid Beaver and apparently did not consider any of them. If you look up the proposed regulations they have Otter closed in every area that Beaver is. Hopefully the OTA will get an email out soon asking people to attend the commission meeting.
This is the tip of the ice berg . I never thought ODFW would help the antis take away trapping.