Wisconsin Trapper s Association, Inc. PO Box 305 Oregon, WI 53575-0305 Richard Kirchmeyer, Secretary (715) 820-1083 rtkirchmeyer@pctcnet.net Wisconsin Trappers Assoc. Awards Ceremony Minutes September 10, 2016 Marshfield Fair grounds Marshfield, Wisconsin Chris Bezio the awards committee chairman presented Richard Clark with the W.T.A. Trapper of the Year Award. Dennis Knuth was awarded with the W.T.A. Volunteer of the year for 2016. Chris awarded Jim Gordon with the W.T.A. Director of the year award. A very deserving Wisconsin D.N.R. warden, Dave Swanson was awarded the W.T.A. warden of the year award. The 2016 legislator of the year award went to Al Ott. President Scott Zimmermann awarded the Presidents Award to a very deserving and a huge asset to the W.T. A. Scott McAuley. Chris announced that Mike Abrahamson will be inducted into the W.T.A. Hall of Fame. Congratulations to all. The annual fall membership meeting was called to order by President S. Zimmermann at 6:00 pm. The W.T.A. Secretary declared a quorum was present. The pledge to the flag was recited by all present. Pres. Zimmermann read the W.T.A. mission statement. The agenda was presented. Pres. Zimmermann asked to add member s matters to the agenda. A MOTION WAS MADE BY J. Gordon and seconded by S. Bazelle to approve the agenda with the addition of member matters. MOTION CARRIED. W.T.A. Sec. R. Kirchmeyer asked for a motion to be made to accept the March 19 th, 2016 membership meeting minutes that had been previously emailed to the B.O. D. members and also printed in the W. T. A. official magazine. A MOTION WAS MADE BY J. Gordon and seconded by J. Bauer to accept the minutes as previously emailed and printed. MOTION CARRIED. R. Warmka the W.T.A. Treas. provided the membership with the W.T.A. financial report. The W.T.A. is financially stable. The membership in the W.T.A is slightly lower that in previous years. The spring banquet was well attended and was good for the W.T.A. financially. The new fall banquet is going to be held on October 15 th in De Forest. A MOTION WAS MADE BY J. Kortenhof and seconded by L. Sillars to accept the treas. report as presented. MOTION CARRIED. Pres. Report: Pres. Zimmermann officially closed the voting process at this time.(6:15 p.m.) The WTA received the state wide WCC conservation organization of the year award. The WTA was presented with a check for $509.00 from the annual Trapper Man s Feed. Pres. Zimmermann commented that at this time toothed traps will still be usable in Wisconsin for trapping purposes. The WTA has donated $5,000.00 to the Montana Trappers Assn. to help fight an upcoming vote being proposed to stop the use of traps on public lands. October 5 th is the date of the annual Horicon Marsh auction where the DNR sells areas for trappers to trap on during the 2016-2017 season. The WWF is looking for support from the many state organizations to promote a license fee increase on trapping
and hunting licenses. A MOTION WAS MADE BY R. Kirchmeyer that the WTA membership and the WTA BOD support the raising of licenses fees for trapping and hunting in Wisconsin. A second to the motion was made by B. Larson. MOTION CARRIED. Dennis Brady representing NAFA presented a check to the WTA for $800.00 from the sale of furs through NAFA (1/4 of 1% of fur sales) V. Pres. report; Sec. R. Kirchmeyer read a report prewritten by V.P. Jr. Prudlick P&F Comm. Report; A. Groehler commented that the committee has finalized the conflict of interest policy and the records document policy. He would like the committee to start working on updating the various positions that are pertinent to the WTA to function. After being completed he would like all these descriptions of the positions to be available on the WTA s website. Event Cord. Report; S. McAuley reported that he attended many events this past year where he had a booth promoting the WTA and trapping in Wisconsin. On Sept. the 11 th he will be presenting the past Miss Wisconsin with a bobcat fur coat for her past work with the WTA. Scott has 2 events left to attend this year, a craft show in Marshfield, and the cranberry fest in Warrens. NTA Report; S. McAuley reported on the annual NTA convention which was held in Kalamazoo, Michigan there were approximately 2,800 people attended. The NTA is helping the Montana Trappers Assn. with the anti trapping referendum that is being voted on in November. A number of WTA districts have individually donated to the Montana Trappers Assoc. FTA Report; C. Andres informed the membership that the annual FTA convention will be back in Wisconsin in 2018. The FTA has already donated $5,000.00 to Montana and will donate another $5,000.00 in three weeks. USSA has also donated $5,000.00 to Montana. FTW Report: The FTW will be holding a trap camp in 2017, Chad has been scoping out three different camps where the FTW could possibly hold a trap camp. The FTW has about 25-30 members in the past, but during the past week they have signed up 20 plus new members. Brooklyn Barnett the past President of the FTW has done a great job of promoting youth in the trapping fraternity. THANK YOU Brooklyn for your dedication to the FTW. A quote from Brooklyn reads; It is never to late to teach old trappers to trap like a girl. The new FTW Pres. is Hunter Skatterbo, and Jessica Roberts was voted in as the new V. Pres. Trapper Ed. Report: B. Larson informed the membership that as of the end of July 509 students had graduated from the trapper ed. program. Any trapper ed. instructor must be a member of the WTA to be able to teach. Bryce reminded all trapper ed. instructors that they must register their classes with the DNR before they start the class so the event is covered by the states insurance. Trapper ed. correspondence course cord. report; M. Widner said that 192 people have graduated from the correspondence course so far this year. There are still approximately 200 people who have started the course but have not completed it at this time. Remember all correspondence course students that complete the course after Jan. 1 st o f
2017 must participate in a field day test. Mike has two projects he will be working on, first is completing the online course and the second is to update the videos used in the correspondence courses. J. Kosnicki (DNR ) has been helping update the length of times instructors have been teaching trapper ed. and making sure all are up to date on the awards they all deserve. Jenna thanked all instructors for their dedication to the trapper ed. program. DNR Report: S. Rossler( Fur bearer specialist)commented that he was glad to be back in Wisconsin after a few years absence. Shawn wanted to make sure all WTA districts remember to pick up their skinning tables this weekend. The annual bobcat, otter, and fisher drawings have been completed and permits will be sent out in a few weeks. There will be a Trapping Matters media training day set to be held on Sept. 24 th in St. Point. There is a $15.00 fee and you can sign up for the day until the 23 rd of Sept. Starting in the fall of 2016 the DNR has approved new trapping hours, or should we say, no hours period. The start of the trapping season now starts at 12:00am. Foot activated cable restraint add a new tool to the traps you can use, this new method of trapping will be usable Dec. 1st 2016. At this time the DNR is not moving forward with the ability to shorten the beaver trapping season in the north. They may look at having the ability to shorten the season by 15 days if need be. Nathan Roberts(DNR furbearer Research specialist) The bob cat study will still be active for the 2016-2017 seasons. Any trapper who accidentally traps a bobcat is asked to contact the DNR so the cat can be collared for further studies. The two main objectives of the study is to try to get a better estimate on how many cats are in the state and how many can we harvest each year. The study area is a 12 county area, last year 36 cats were collared. So far the study is helping estimating how big a cats home range is(male cats estimated range 18 sq. miles females range 11 sq. miles) The study will also help to find out how far and frequent cats move and also survivorship. There will also be a bob cat study area of 8 counties in south west Wisconsin. Wolves in Wisconsin are listed as endangered and at this time it doesn t seem to be a very good chance to get them federally delisted. There are 30 collars available to be put on wolves to better keep track of their movements. River otters populations are in very much need of a new way to estimate their populations, this study will hopefully be done some time in the future. Beaver in Wisconsin are also in need of a new less expensive way to estimate their populations other than the use of helicopters. Old Business: Election of WTA President and NTA director A call for any nomination from the floor for the NTA director position was asked for three times by Sec. Kirchmeyer. None were made. R. Kirchmeyer MADE A MOTION TO CLOSE NOMINATIONS FOR THE POSITION OF NTA DIRECTOR. A second to the motion was made by Kathy Bazelle. MOTION CARREID. Sec. Kirchmeyer asked for any nominations from the floor for the position of WTA President. After asking for any nominations three times Sec. Kirchmeyer asked for a motion to close nominations for the WTA Presidents position. AMOTION WAS MADE BY J. Gordon and seconded by D. Louis. MOTION CARRIED. Raffle Cord; D. Louis thanked all the people who make the appreciation party a success. He thanked Trapper Art, Clarks Willow Tree, Fur Harvester Auctions and the WTA.
New Business: President Zimmermann was presented with an appreciation award from WTA Dist. 10. Pres. Zimmermann asked members to help clean and put things away on Sunday. He also stated we need to start preparing for the 2018 FTA convention which the WTA is sponsoring. Members Matters; Justin Loehrke MADE A MOTION THAT THE WTA PRESIDENT APPOINT A COMMITTEE TO HELP THE PRESIDENT PREPARE FOR ANY DNR COMMITTEE MEETINGS HE MAY ASKED TO ATTEND. A second to the motion was made by B. Hesgard. MOTION CARRIED. The next WTA BOD meeting will be held on October 15 th. That evening will be the first annual fall banquet which will be held in De Forest. Members may check on the WTA web site to purchase tickets and get other information about the event. Election results; Scott Zimmermann was re-elected as the President of the WTA. Scott McAuley was re-elected as the NTA director A motion was made by S. Bazelle and seconded by J. Kortenhof to adjourn the meeting at 7:37 pm. Motion carried. Respectfully Submitted by; Richard Kirchmeyer WTA Sec. WTA BOD meeting minutes The meeting was called to order by Pres. Zimmermann The roll call of district directors was taken by Sec. R. Kirchmeyer. A MOTION WAS MADE TO ACCEPT THE RESULTS OF THE ELECTION PROCEES AND RESULTS by J. Kortenhof. A second to the motion was made by J. Bauer. MOTION CARRIED. A MOTION TO ADJOURN WAS MADE BY S. McAuley and seconded by J. Kortenhof. MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully Submitted by; Richard Kirchmeyer WTA Sec.
The Wisconsin Trappers Association continues to ensure the future of trapping. Visit us on the web at www.wistrap.org