High fur prices attract more trappers in Iowa

“It's a good time for trappers right now,” said Vince Evelsizer, furbearer specialist for the Department of Natural Resources.

Strong furbearer populations, coupled with high fur prices, have fueled a surge in the number of Iowa trappers, Evelsizer said.

Last year the state sold 19,268 furbearer licenses, required to either trap or hunt such species as raccoon, fox, coyote, beaver, muskrat, otter, bobcat and mink.

That represented a nearly 36 percent increase over the 14,197 licenses sold just three years earlier in 2009, which marked the beginning of the current fur boom.

Though license sales have trended lower this year – 17,628 as of Nov. 14 – Evelsizer said he doubts the boom has peaked.

“Nobody is saying this is going to end soon,” said Mitch Cox, editor of Fur-Fish-Game magazine.

Growing Asian demand for fur has increased the number of Iowa trappers and the remuneration for their efforts.

Without factoring in inflation, fur prices today are comparable to those of the late 1970s- early 1980s trapping heyday, according to Cox.

During the 1979-80 season, Iowans harvested a record 1,146,311 furbearers. But the boom ended when animal rights activists began protesting trapping and the wearing of fur apparel, driving down demand for North American furs.

Now the furor has subsided, and fur appears to be back in style.

“It's as good as it's ever been,” said lifelong trapper Terry Kress of Quasqueton, who experienced those glory days when non-trapping motorists would stop to pick up a roadkill raccoon.

“You don't see a dead coon on the road today, either. People are picking up roadkill and selling it,” he said.

The average price for raccoon sold in Iowa last year was $13.60, up from $10.86 the year before, with more gains likely this year.

In that same period coyotes went from $12.08 to $15.93, red fox from $17.74 to $25.85 and muskrat from $5.93 to $7.48.

Those prices include unskinned carcasses, which typically sell for much less than finished pelts.

Finished pelts - skinned, scraped, stretched and dried - brought a premium in February at the North American Fur Auction in Toronto, where more than 400,000 raccoon pelts, by far the leading product of Iowa trappers, sold at an average price of $31.20.

“Super good coon pelts sold in the $40 range,” said Ed Grillot of Wheatland, a director of the Iowa Trappers Association and a trapper for 54 years.

The current era is not yet quite as good as 1979-81, when a raccoon pelt could fetch as much as $60 and a red fox pelt up to $120, according to Harry Peyton of Aurora, who processes and buys pelts for Central States Furs Corp. in rural Aurora.

After decades of generally low prices influenced by the widespread protests of animal rights activists, prices are going up, Evelsizer said, because “the pendulum has swung back to where fur is in vogue.”

Natural furs are a status symbol in China, Russia and Korea and to a lesser extent in Europe and the United States, he said. Fur is being marketed as a natural renewable resource, “riding the wave of the green movement,” Evelsizer said.

At the same time, he said, trappers have put more emphasis on ethics and best management practices to the point that “the stigma has worn off.”

Cox, the magazine editor, said the stigma still exists, but anti-trapping sentiment “is not as big a hot button issue as it once was.”

In China and Russia, the two leading fur markets, “they never bought into” the animal cruelty arguments, he said.

Fur volume at the Northeast Iowa Fur Exchange is up about 20 percent from the previous year, according to Jason O'Loughlin, a 10-year employee of the Rowley-based fur buyer and processor.

As of Nov. 12, 10 days into the season, O'Loughlin and Craig Hemsath, the son of owner Rick Hemsath, had skinned about 1,300 raccoons, they said.

Sales of traps and lures have been “the best ever,” O'Loughlin said.

“A lot of older guys are getting back into it, and we're seeing more young kids getting into it,” he said.

The DNR's Evelsizer attributed the surge in license sales both to veterans “with traps hanging in the shed” who dropped out because they had lost money and to newcomers, who are “recharging a new generation of trappers.”

The sluggish economy also has been a factor, too, he said, with trapping creating opportunities “to pick up a few bucks in a way that is fun.”

Kress, who traps with his son Bill, also of Quasqueton, said recent high fur prices have increased the rewards of trapping. “But it's not about the money. It's about the fun,” he said.

The hard way

The Kresses both trap the hard way, arising well before daylight and getting in and out of their canoes 60 times a day to check and reset traps along lengthy river stretches. Early in the season the father traps along the Wapsipinicon River while the son traps near the Cedar River.

After the first week, in which they catch a combined total of about 300 raccoon, they pull their traps and redeploy them for another intense week of trapping on the Iowa River.

After the traps have all been checked, they skin and stretch pelts until bedtime.

“It's a lot of work, but it's worth it to me. I get to spend a lot of quality time with my son, and I'm pretty much one with nature during trapping season,” Terry Kress said.

Last year the Kresses trapped “eight short of 600 raccoons,” which they sold for an average price of around $25 in February at the fur auction in Toronto.

“Money-wise, yes, this is good, but every year is good,” said Grillot, who has experienced trapping seasons when his fur check wouldn't pay for his gasoline.

“Getting out there and seeing the sun come up - you can't get that sitting behind a desk. You've got to be there to take that all in,” he said.

Grillot said trapping helps him understand and appreciate nature's cycles.

“Dying is part of living. We are part of that cycle, whether some people like to believe it or not,” he said.