Kinda cool to have a trapping story make front page news. Today’s Pioneer Press here in the Twin Cities.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/16225391.htm
Edit to add text of story so you don’t need to create an account at the Pioneer Press.
Trap it, skin it, go global
BY CHRIS NISKANEN
Pioneer Press
CHRIS NISKANEN/Pioneer Press
Dylan Monroe, 17, sets a muskrat trap Sunday in a marsh near his White Bear Lake home. The White Bear Lake High School senior has caught 50 muskrats this season as fur prices hit their highest mark in decades. The state DNR has sold 7,768 trapping licenses this year, the most in 16 years.
More photosTeenager Dylan Monroe skinned a muskrat in his parents’ garage in White Bear Lake on Sunday, unaware he was the beneficiary of changes in the global economy.
“I guess it’s something to do for fun,” Monroe, 17, said of the trapline he runs with friend Aaron Olson on a local marsh. “But I hear I can get at least $5 for a muskrat that’s skinned and stretched.”
A soaring global demand for wild fur, particularly in China, has Minnesota trappers like Monroe and Olson returning to the state’s centuries-old practice of trapping furbearing animals. For their 50 muskrat pelts, they can get prices that haven’t been seen in Minnesota for decades.
“Today, I’m paying $7 for ‘rats that are stretched and skinned,” said Mark Melby, a fur buyer in New London, Minn. “They haven’t hit that price since the late ’70s and early ’80s. I have guys coming in to sell furs who haven’t trapped since they quit 20 years ago.”
Last year, the average price was $2.80.
The Department of Natural Resources has sold 7,768 trapping licenses this fall — the most in 16 years — for a season that begins in the fall and runs through early winter.
“Without a doubt, most of our trappers are hobbyists,” said John Erb, a DNR furbearer expert. “It seems to me the average trapper doesn’t make more than $1,000 a year, so they might be making enough to buy Christmas presents.”
Minnesota has healthy populations of muskrats, mink, raccoon, otter, fisher and pine marten — fur species that are popular overseas and in the fashion industry.
“There are a lot of countries around the world where people buy a fur coat for utility reasons, not for fashion,” Erb said.
Russia is a major market for Minnesota’s wild furs, but China’s growing demand is dominating the market, say fur experts.
“Most of our muskrats will end up in China,” Melby said. “China has become the main buyer of northern fur in the U.S.”
It is not just the growing middle class in China but also the newly rich Chinese who are buying expensive fur coats. Bloomberg.com, the financial news service, recently reported wealthy Chinese are snapping up fur coats as a symbol of their success.
“The truly rich are a growing demographic in China,” Torben Nielsen, chief executive of Kopenhagen Furs, told the news service. Based in Denmark, Kopenhagen Furs is the world’s largest seller of high-fur products.
Despite years of protest by animal-rights activists, the U.S. fashion industry also is embracing fur, according to the California-based Fur Information Council of America. Sales of fur and fur trim grew 81 percent between 1991 and 2005, according to the council’s Web site.
Erb said Minnesota ranks among the top three states for wild muskrat, otter, beaver, pine marten and fisher fur. The fisher and pine marten are cat-sized woodland species that live in northern Minnesota but are uncommon elsewhere in the U.S.
A trapper himself, Erb said fur prices drive interest in trapping in Minnesota, where a peak 45,000 trapping licenses were sold in 1946.
But the fickleness of the global economy makes it difficult to predict fur prices or whether the spike in trapping interest will continue.
“It’s more complex these days, especially relating to the economies of other countries in the world,” Erb said. “For example, otter prices went up five years ago because the Chinese got interested in otter. Conversely, otter prices are down now because Chinese aren’t as interested, but I’ve heard about four different stories as to why — including that the Dalai Lama doesn’t like otter fur.”
Back in White Bear Lake, Monroe and Olson don’t follow international fur trends, but they definitely like the idea of earning extra pocket money.
“I’ll probably use the money to put gas in my truck,” said Olson, 18. He and Monroe are seniors at White Bear Lake High School.
Muskrats are small, aquatic furbearers that inhabit shallow marshes and lakes. Monroe, whose parents are avid hunters and anglers, lives near a shallow lake where muskrats are plentiful. When he was 13, Monroe became fascinated with trapping and, with his parents’ support, he taught himself how to trap from books, videos and magazines.
“He knows far more about trapping than I do,” said his father, Dan.
Dylan Monroe said he uses a body-gripping trap that kills muskrats almost instantly. A neighbor gave him traps to get started, and then he invested his fur earnings into new traps a few years ago.
He sets them along marshy trails that muskrats frequent and inside their dens made of heaps of vegetation. He checks his traps daily, usually after school and before his shift at the local Subway sandwich shop.
Olson credits his buddy for having the trapping savvy.
“He’s the expert,” Olson said of Monroe. “He can skin a ‘rat in 15 minutes. Naw, make that 7½ minutes.”
On Sunday, the two friends hiked across a frozen lake to run their trapline. They set seven traps; by the end of the afternoon, they had caught one muskrat. By Monday, they had three more, bringing their total to 50 for the season.
Stretched muskrat pelts dry in the Monroe family basement and on the wall of a backyard shed. On Sunday, Dylan expertly skinned a muskrat and slipped the pelt, inside out, over a metal hoop to dry.
Time of the process from beginning to end: 10 minutes.
“It’s not really all that difficult,” he said.
BY THE NUMBERS
• The average price of a muskrat pelt was $2.80 last year. Today, trappers can get $7.
• Minnesota ranks among the top three states for wild muskrat, otter, beaver, pine marten and fisher fur.
• China and Russia are major markets for Minnesota’s wild furs.
Chris Niskanen can be reached at [email protected] or 651-228-5524.
-J.
