Bounty Trapping Ends on Public Lands; Tail Submissions Down in May

If you see a varmint trap on public land today, you’re seeing someone breaking the law. Game Fish and Parks told trappers last week to “remove all traps, snares, and associated trapping equipment from public lands and improved rights-of-ways [sic] by May 12.” That was yesterday. Folks looking to cash in on critter tails under Governor Noem’s new Nest Predator Bounty Program can still trap on private land, with landowner permission.

Traps normally have to be removed from public land by May 1. Bob Mercer explains that GF&P had sought an extension of trap placement through September 1 to support Governor Noem’s pheasant protection initiative, but the Legislature’s Rules Review Committee rejected that extension among several illegal rules underpinning Noem’s varmint-trapping push.

Average daily tail submissions have dropped since the Nest Predator Bounty Program started handing out $10 per raccoon, opossum, skunk, badger, or fox tail on April 1. In the first ten days of April, tail submissions ranged from 242 to 715. Daily tail submissions in May have ranged from 38 to 184. As of this morning’s report, people have hacked off 14,097 tails from dead critters and hauled them to GF&P offices… making GF&P offices not nearly as nice a place to work as they were before Noem took office.

Now word yet on whether Governor Noem will push for legislation next year to expand trapping times on public lands or whether the Legislature will support such a move. But one can only imagine the campaign slogans that could spring from such an effort: “Chase More Tail: Reëlect Kristi Noem!”