Conservation Benefits of Trapping

In the past, trapping was important in developing the nation. Today, it is an important tool for managing our nation’s natural resources.

• Money from the sale of hunting and trapping licenses is used to fund wildlife conservation programs.
  • These programs look for new ways to ensure that all people have a fair chance to use the nation’s lands and waters.
  • These programs also encourage scientific research on wildlife populations. This research provides information used to set the hunting and trapping regulations that help maintain wildlife populations at a healthy level.
  • Wildlife programs often include setting up game refuges or wildlife management areas to provide suitable habitat where furbearers can reproduce. Sometimes furbearers also are relocated from one area to another to encourage their survival.
  • Other habitat management programs help landowners maintain and improve the habitats on their land.
• Trapping helps control animal populations by minimizing:
  • Starvation
  • Spread of disease
  • Damage or destruction of habitat
• Trapping helps reduce damage to personal property by preventing or decreasing:
  • Flooding caused by beaver dams
  • Destruction of trees
  • Killing of livestock or pets
• Trapping protects certain endangered or threatened species from predatory furbearers.
• Trapping helps fund wildlife programs and research through the sale of trapping licenses.
• Trapping provides recreation, food, clothing, and supplemental income.
• Trapping allows many people to participate in cultural traditions.
• Live trapping is used to move species from areas where they are plentiful to areas where they are scarce.
• Live trapping helps biologists study many species of wildlife.