The Rural Voice, 1988-01, Page 22THE
TRAPPER'S
TERRITORY
- HUNTING FOR A HAPPY
MEDIUM BETWEEN MAN AND
HIS ENVIRONMENT
After 38 years of trapping, Orval Ford is thoroughly
at home in the territory from which he harvests about
a third of his income. He also knows his theoretical
territory, and has scant appreciation for the "Walt
Disney" perception of animals when it fortifies the
extremes of the animal welfare movement. `Trappers
are conservationists," he says. "Conservation is the
wise use of a natural resource. Preservation is not
conservation. People get the two mixed up." Rural
Voice writer Mary -Lou Weiser -Hamilton talks to
this veteran trapper about his profession.
0
rval Ford was 16 years old
when he got his first trapper's
licence back in 1949. Today,
at 54, he can recall many changes, and
as a director of the Ontario Trappers'
Association (OTA) he is helping to
shape the future of the trapping indus-
try. Along with other trappers, he has
weathered — and is continuing to
weather — the storm of consumer
reaction to his profession.
When Ford, who lives near
Hanover, began trapping 38 years
ago, the licence fee was $5. This year
he paid only 50 cents more, but his
trapping territory has shrunk consi-
derably. The six townships that his
licence now allows him to trap in are
a far cry from the boundaries of the
stamping ground that once stretched
over all of Southern Ontario south of
the French and Mattawa rivers.
Ford doesn't classify himself as a
full-time trapper, but about a third of
his income is derived from trapping.
He is busy from dawn to dusk check-
ing his 100 -mile trapline daily from
the October opening of the season
until the snow comes.
He sets between 200 and 300 traps
each year. The first week of the trap-
ping season is the best, and a typical
day usually nets 3 or 4 coons, 3 or 4
mink, and 30 to 40 muskrats.
The raccoon and mink season runs
from the middle of October to the end
of December. The beaver season
extends to the end of March, and the
muskrat season to the end of April.
Because foxes and coyotes are classed
as nuisance animals, they can be trap-
ped at any time during the year. A
normal year brings in about 20 foxes
for Fora, but last year rabies went
through the area, reducing the popu-
lation, and he has trapped only one
fox so far this season.
Trapping is a challenge, Ford says,
and success depends on the ability to
think like the animals, particularly
when trapping fox and coyote.
Fox traps are boiled in a disinfect-
ing solution, then waxed to destroy all
human scent before being baited with
fox meat and buried along a frequently
used path. "After a while," says Ford,
"you get to know where they will
travel."
He always uses gloves to handle
the traps. "If you picked up a trap
20 THE RURAL VOICE