[Comments in brackets are by Jeannine and Duane]
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From the Northern Crew:
Greetings from the North.
Last week we continued to repair traps. Most are ready to go, however we are still without a functional trailer. Emily and Andrew have been troopers, but I can sense the frustration as all three of us know we are well behind the other crews. We’ll keep our chins up and continue to make as much progress as possible. We are determined to get some traps out this week, one way or another!
Much of the snow melted away last week, but this weekend brought a fresh cover. Have a great week everyone.
-Tom
Northern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission
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From the Southern Crew:
Hello all!
We’re another week closer to deer on the ground, and we’ve been knuckling down on our final week of preparations before active trapping. Bret gave us our training on proper rocket net setup and safe handling last Wednesday. Everything went off without a hitch and I think we’re all excited to be able to add rocket netting to our list of options again this year! We even practiced putting “deer” in sternal with the resources we had available! Practice makes perfect, and our snow deer (for demonstration purposes), made for a cooperative individual unlike our standard Pennsylvania deer.
Last week we got some bait on the ground, and so far the deer are quite literally eating it up. This week we’ll be adding new bait sites and moving traps to the sites that have been hit to hopefully acclimate the deer before setting the traps. Confident deer = captured deer! We also figured out that the backup camera on the new truck is excellent for hooking up the trailer. The remaining Clover traps just need a few tweaks before being completely field ready, so we’ll wrap that up this week before placing them in the field.
The snow is rapidly disappearing, but I’m sure it will be back. After all, it’s still only January! Within the next few weeks, I’m optimistic we’ll have deer processed. I’m sure everyone is excited for that, but in the meantime we’ll be making sure everything is ready for our four legged friends to make safe captures!
-Michaela
Southern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission
