Trapping : A Romantic Way to Make a Living

By Robert D. Sopuck,* vice-president, Canadian prairie region, Delta Waterfowl Foundation

One of my great failings (and I have many) is that I am a hopeless romantic, especially about life in nature. My passion for the outdoor life was developed at the family cottage in the Whiteshell and honed by reading the boys' outdoor adventure books of the day. I eagerly devoured the African safari stories of the aptly named J.A. Hunter and all others like it but I was enthralled by stories of our great Northern wilderness.

Just thinking of Jack London's great stories like To Build a Fire or The Law of Life is enough to send shivers down my spine. Farley Mowat's Lost in the Barrens was read and re-read dozens of times and John J. Rowlands' Cache Lake Country made me ache to live life "in the bush." I wanted to be a trapper.

Fortunately, good sense intervened and I eventually got an education, but my fascination with furbearers, trappers and the trapping lifestyle has never waned. And my own experiences as a trapper, mostly a failed trapper if the truth be known, have given me profound respect for the men and women who actually make their living on the land.

Luckily, I'm able to live out my trapping fantasies from time to time by matching wits with some of Manitoba's most clever creatures by trying to catch them. Trapping gives one a brand new perspective on nature because you literally have to think like a coyote or fox in order to outwit them. And the "stories in the snow" tell you exactly what happened. Nobody knows nature like a trapper.

A few years ago, I had some power snares set for coyotes and I was able to exactly see how those wily critters just walked around my sets time and time again. And these were on trails that they always used. Not only that, I once saw where a lynx had walked along the same trail and obviously jumped right through the snare without making the hair-trigger set spring. I shook my head at that one.

Beaver trapping in winter is awesomely hard work. First you identify the feed pile and then you set your traps along the runs that the beavers have made going back and forth. It's no mean feat to try and figure out where those runs are under 30 centimetres or more of ice. Then, if you get one, you've got to skin and prepare it.

Beaver skins must be fleshed, a job for an amateur like me that takes about an hour. I'd rather skin a deer.

Then comes the selling of the fur and the volatile fur market makes the stock market seem tame by comparison. That's because fur prices fluctuate wildly due to the whims of fur buyers and fashion designers.

This was brought home to me in spades a few years ago when I had the bright idea that I'd catch enough beavers to buy a black powder rifle. At the time they were about $30 each and I figured that about 15 would do it. The romance of catching beavers to buy a musket was not lost on me.

I got about $8 each for my 10 beaver pelts when selling time came.

Canada is synonymous with the fur trade and our history is replete with the stories of trappers, trap lines, and the great fur-trade routes. The wonderful book, Exploring the Fur Trade Routes of North America, by Manitoban Barbara Huck provides a wealth of detail about "the highways that opened a continent." Canada is still the hub of the North American fur trade and North American Fur Auctions is where most fur is sold. A check of this site revealed that all the furs at the January auction were sold, a good sign for sales to come. One could be forgiven for thinking that the fur business was on its last legs but nothing could be further from the truth. Fur is back and sales are increasing, especially to new markets in Asia and Russia.

One of the fascinations of the fur trade is the cultural connection created by this business. There is an unbroken line from the simple trapper's cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness to the fashion salons of Paris and London.

I continue to be a strong proponent of this most sustainable of industries.

Of all of the things we humans do to make a living nothing touches the earth as lightly as the fur trade. I am heartened by the spirit of Canada's trappers who continue to stubbornly ply their trade in the face of a modern world that seems to have forgotten the real lessons of nature.