Prices not so good right now, according to state agency

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Posted Thursday, July 24, 2025 12:56 pm

By Jackson Dircks

SDPB News

The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department has failed to hit its target for trapping licenses in five out of the last six years.

While the department said some of that is out of its control, it’s important to get those numbers up.

GFP has a goal to sell more than 4,000 fur-bearing licenses a year. Since 2019, it has only done so in 2021. In 2023, numbers dipped to 3,300, before bouncing back slightly to between 3,600 and 3,900.

GFP Secretary Kevin Robling spoke on the numbers at the latest state Government Audit and Operations Committee meeting. He said while they haven’t hit that 4,000-license benchmark, a lot of it has to do with the markets.

“Trapping licenses are a reflection of the fur market. And the fur market right now is very poor, very poor. You might get $3 or $5 for a raccoon in prime condition. Coyotes are bringing $10, maybe,” Robling said. “You know? So, the fur market does definitely get folks more excited to buy a fur-bearer license. If fur prices are good, more folks are going to put effort into that recreational opportunity.”

He said one promising thing is that the department’s Nest Predator Bounty Program has increased youth trapping involvement in the state. The program gives participants $10 a tail per raccoon, striped skunk, badger, opossum and red fox trapped and killed.

Robling said that’s encouraging.

“That’s been a strong indication of ensuring our trapping heritage does not fade away because across this nation it is,” Robling said. “Trapping has become a less-pursued opportunity.”

He added that keeping trapping and fur-bearing license numbers up is vital to agriculture and GFP’s mission of wildlife management.

“But that 4,000 number isn’t like this silver bullet of we need 4,000 to manage the coyote population. We could probably use 10,000 quite honestly, you know as far as the number of coyotes we have, the number of raccoons we have. They definitely help us though manage, let’s say in this case coyotes,” Robling said. “Coyotes, we have a whole entire wildlife damage management program. Twenty-eight full-time trappers that everyday they’re trying to help producers make sure they don’t lose lambs and calves in the agricultural space. We could use some more folks out there killing coyotes, harvesting coyotes.”

Robling said once license numbers decline, it’s hard to get them back up.

by Paula PetersonTuesday, July 22, 2025 – 10:42pm

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• https://southtahoenow.com/07/22/2025/bear-trap-removed-from-tahoe-keys-area-for-now

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – A bear trap that was placed in the Tahoe Keys neighborhood by the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) several days ago has been removed. The trap was placed there to try and catch sow #753, whose DNA has been linked to at least 12 home break-ins in the Tahoe Keys, and had been hazed from five homes this spring.

She is now teaching her cubs the same behaviors she and her siblings learned, and as did her mother and grandmother, who was famously known as “Hank the Tank” (aka Henrietta).

According to CDFW, #753 recently broke into a locked home and spent two days inside creating a large mess. The homeowner asked for a depredation permit. They were not issued one, but CDFW put out the trap to try and catch her. Most likely, she would have been euthanized and her cub taken to a rehabilitation center in California

The Tahoe Keys are a central location for bears, but it is not necessarily due to anything the homeowners there have done; it’s more because the area is surrounded by their natural homes in marshes, meadows, and near trees. Bears have broken through padlocked doors and are not normally entering through anything left open.

No. 753. her mother #182, and siblings #180 and #215 are no strangers to the Keys area from SR89 to Highland Woods. Currently, DNA places all of the conflict bears in that area from one family, and they are all females. The moms teach bad behaviors and pass on how they learned to forage in neighborhoods and not in the wild, and the next generation will do the same. If a cub can be removed from a sow, they can go into a rehabilitation facility and learn non-conflict activities instead of perpetuating the problem. While this isn’t ideal, it could be the only way to break the cycle.

CDFW will continue to monitor the bears. They said they were asked by the Tahoe Keys community to help them with #753.

Every Lake Tahoe neighborhood with apartment houses and businesses with dumpsters is a bigger offender than the Keys in making food and trash available for bears in unlocked containers.

Bears go through deadbolted front doors, as well as the easier entry points like open windows and unlocked doors.

The Tahoe Interagency Bear Team (TIBT) is comprised of several agencies around Lake Tahoe who work together and use science to focus on bear education, outreach, and implementing bear management practices to ensure the well-being of both bears and humans. The TIBT emphasizes the importance of respecting bears and their natural behaviors, encouraging the public to secure attractants like garbage and pet food to prevent bears from becoming habituated to human presence.

The only thing that will keep bears from needing to be trapped, and killed is to break the cycle – stop giving them food, as it will never be achieved until this happens.

“The safety of the community is our priority,” said CDFW PIO Peter Tira.

For more information on keeping Tahoe bears wild and being “bear-wise,” visit https://www.tahoebears.org/.

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