NUMBER OF TRAPPERS DWINDLE AS Brunswick County Resident Battles Pesky m BYTKRRY POPE When local fur priccs were high er, about 35 trappers roamed Bruns wick County's swamps and rural ar eas in search of game. But today, Charles Eddins of Leland is starting to feel he is part of a dying breed. Fur priccs have fallen dramatically in recent years at a unte when the local beaver population is exploding. llie result is a major problem for landowners, farmers and timber companies who have few trappers to turn to for help. Eddins may be the last person in Brunswick County who still traps beavers for a bounty. Beavers buiiu dams that stop streams front flowing freely. Their mountain of mud, sticks and debris can also clog up drainage ditches, causing land that was once high and dry to flood. Thousands of dollars in timber may even rot away. The ro dents arc also destroyers, cutting down fee.; to build their dams and chewing away bark for food. "A lot of people were trapping for the money," said Eddins. "When the money went, they went. I can under stand them not war, ting to go out here when the pay isn't good. But now is the time when we need trap pers." Supply and demand is the name of the game. When the demand for furs increases, the price of pelts will increase, too. The slow economy and negative publicity from animal righ;s activists have pushed the fur market down, said Eddins. He sells beaver furs for S8 to SI 2 each to an agent that ships them to Canada. Traps cost him SI 75 a dozen, and it takes over an hour to skin a single beaver. Add the cost of gasoline for his travel over a three county area, state license fees and pelt tags, and the trapper is lucky to brc*ik even The person that is still trapping animals today in Brunswick County isn't doing it for a living, he said. "1 did not start trapping for the money," said Eddins. "It's like duck hunting or playing golf. It's a sport and a hobby. 1 really love the sport and what it stands for." Today he is secretary of the North Carolina Trappers Association, an organization that is some 400 mem bers strong, and also serves as host of trapping displays for the annual Dixie Deer Classic held in Raleigh each March. 1 le has been trapping animals for more than 20 years. Never has he cr?f?n thf* wilri animal nnnnl'tiinn in "vv" ? * ' ? rvr?.?..v Brunswick County greater than it is today, with an abundance of foxes, beavers and raccoons living in peo ple's backyards and even on the lo cal beaches. "When the prices dropped, not only did the trappers quit trapping, but the raccoon hunters quit hunt ing," be said. "The population is ex ploding. Mother Nature is going to move in, and she's going to wipe them all out. She'll take the young, the old, the big and the small. You'll have rabies and distemper that will spread to your domestic animals." A trapper's goal is to help control the animal population and to make pesks like beavers more manage able, not to wipe the species out of CXISieillC, i'lC Soiii. Locally, trappers can use conibcar traps, which are s|K*cially designed to instantly kill the beaver once it sw ims inside and triggers the device, from Dec. I to Feb. 20. Lcghold steel traps cannot be set until the da\ after the deer hunting season ends, Jan. 2. to avoid injury to hunting dogs. Hunters and trappers don't always see cyc-to-cyc. "When a man comes along and finds one of these traps and lakes it," Eddins said, "it hurts me. There's a lot of expense to trapping." Trappers also fall victim to nega tive media exposure organi/.cd by animal rights organizations, said Eddins, which are opposed to using animals for research and for making clothing. "They don't even want us to use eggs anymore," he explained, "be cause we keep chickens in chicken houses." Fur prices, he predicts, will in crease slowly over time. That could mean good news for Brunswick County residents who face local Hooding problems due to beaver ac tivity. Eddins serves on a committee that hopes it can get federal funds to start a pilot program in October to either trap or remove beavers from Brunswick. Columbus and Bladen counties. "As a trapper, I am not against that at all," he said. "I cannot trap all of the beavers in this three-county area. The people need help, and if I can't get litem the help, let's get someone in here that can." An employee of Federal Paper Co. in Rcigclwood, Eddins spends most of his vacation time trapping beavers. He pulls a pop-up camper to Robeson County occasionally to work in stress ihcrc. Evcn with ** control project in place locally, Eddins said there will still be a need METAL FOLDING TABLES SALE 30X60 $49.95 HEAVY DUTY 30x72..?..,$59*9S FOLDINGCHAIRS 30X96 $69.95 $10.50 J: OFFICE FURNITURE SALVAGE 2705 MARKET ST. ? WILMINGTON^ (919)763-1515 2-for-the-price-of-i STEAK SPECIAL Sirloin steak, choice of potato, tossed salad and bread... 2 for $1 0.95 MONDAY-THURSDAY ONLY SEAFOOD ? DAILY LUNCH SPECIALS SANDWICH PLATES ? SALADS EVERYDAY FIDDLER'S SPECIAL Includes fish, shrimp, deviled crab, clam strips, French fries, cde slaw and hush puppies. es ? i\# 4 t.95 GET1FREE !u nusn p $8. SUNDAY LUNCH BUFFET 11:30-2 PM. CLOSED SUNDAY EVENINGS SANDFIDDLER SEAFOOD RESTAURANT HWY. 130 EAST ? SHALLOTTD ? 754-8168 for trappers like himself in Brunswick County, 10 help persons who have local flooding problems on private property. The control project will work mainly with county governments and the N.C. Department of Trans portation to remove beavers from ar eas where they pose a threat to high ways or maintained canals and ditches. Individual requests would be placed low on the totem pole, he said. l.ast week. Eddins set traps to help catch heavers from a man-made pond in Grissettown. The animals were cutting down trees and piling in Iron! c? spi!!\vuy, the water level to rise too high for the nervous landowner. The dam would be destroyed, only to have it rebuilt by the pesky beavers overnight. At one time, there were about 1,600 members in the N.C. Trappers Association. Today, that figure has dropped to around 400. In the spring, Eddins lobbied the county and State Rep. David Redwine for a new local fox hunting law. Eddins said the fox population has also multiplied in Brunswick County. It's not uncommon to see a fox chase a dog or cat away from their food, he said. He hopes local Beuver ru/julufiui i k'j We Reserve The Right To I !m!+ I U L_ I I I II L Quantities. Lb. Bunch - Fresh Green BROCCOLI/ Head-Snow White CAULIFLOWER 2 Liter Classic Coke and Diet Coke 2 Liter Sprite & Diet Sprite 780 Prices in this ad good Wednesday, Jan. 8 thru Tuesday, January 14, 1992