It’s January. It’s cold. There is actually snow on the ground. If this keeps up, the 2024 trapping season will be off to a great start. Crews are ready and, for now, excited to hit the woods and catch some deer. Here’s to another safe and successful field season!
[Comments in brackets are by Jeannine and Duane]
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From the Northern Crew:
Greetings from the North.
The northern Deer Forest Study crew spent our first week of the 2024 deer trapping season meeting with Susquehannock State Forest staff, doing an inventory of all equipment, assessing the condition of traps, tools, etc., repairing traps and attending the capture/immobilization training and orientation meeting.
The weather is cold, and snow is coming down, but we have many traps to repair. Wednesday we’ll be attending First Aid/CPR training in Jersey Shore. We are hopeful that we will get time later this week to tour the study area and scout out some trapping locations.
We’re all new to the Project, but we are excited to get going!
-Tom
Northern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission
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From the Southern Crew:
Hello all!
We have now entered into the start of the 2024 deer trapping season! The wind is blowing, the snow is falling, and the crews are here. You may notice a few familiar faces from last year. We’ve all been earning our callouses repairing traps, sorting through our trapping supplies, and refamiliarizing ourselves with protocols. We took a break from our typical pre-trapping preparations to meet for orientation with the other crews before spending the rest of the week back at trap repair.
Bait can’t be on the ground until the end of flintlock season, but we’ll be scouting for potential sites, completing our first aid and CPR training/certification, and (hopefully) wrapping up our Clover trap repair. We’ll be trying a few different techniques this year to maximize trapping success, so I’m excited to see what happens in terms of results. We’re optimistic for trapping weather since there’s a bit of snow on the ground, and I already know we have a great crew this year.
We’re excited to be back!
-Michaela
Southern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission
