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Conibear-style traps are designed to kill, so hopefully you never have to release a pet from one. To open them, compress the springs one at a time: there’s a hook that will hold each spring in the compressed position. Once both springs are compressed, the trap will open. If you’re having a hard time picturing this, Google: “opening conibear using rope.” The video will give you the gist of the mechanics of the trap; a dog leash could also be used as a stand-in for the piece of rope. Honestly, though, to save a pet you’d likely have to rely on hand/arm strength and a surge of adrenaline to compress the springs. The traps are design to dispatch quickly and humanely, so you likely wouldn’t have time to toy around with a rope or leash.

Because conibears are a lethal risk to pets, most states have laws that stipulate that they be set in water. The laws will vary based on your state, the time of year, and the size of the conibear. They’re not used to catch foxes or coyotes – wild canines are too smart to walk into them. And so it’s probably fair to say that there’s a very small chance your dog will encounter one.

When pets are caught in conibears, it’s usually a small dog or a cat and it’s usually in either a raccoon set or in a fisher set. Where it is legal to set a 220 conibear on land, trappers should never do it if there’s even a remote chance of catching a pet. If you’re a raccoon trapper, my advice to you would be to take the bucket set right out of your repertoire. Use dogproof traps instead – they’re a safer and more elegant trap for a raccoon, and your catch rate will probably go up. If you use conibears for fisher, set them up on a leaning pole 5 feet off the ground. If you’re worried about pole-shy fisher, use coilspring foot traps for your ground sets. Even one pet killed in a conibear is too many, and it doesn’t matter if the trap was legally set or if the pet owner should have had their dog on a leash. It’s the trapper’s responsibility to ensure such a scenario never unfolds.

I noticed a strong skunk odor coming from inside my shed. I opened the door and discovered a couple potheads.

I’ve tried this with a tire before but it was a massive headache. Turns out I didn’t have the foresight to actually attach it to the stump with screws like you did. Seems so obvious now.

11/2017 There were four hares here this summer.  We live with ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, and Larch around our cabin.  When the squirrel was cutting the pine cones, I noticed a hare eating the needles of the pine, right down to the bundle sheath.  As we had such a hard winter last year, I set some of the branches aside, putting them under the eaves.  Sure enough, we have seen a hare munching on the needles.  I bet they really like when the snow is deep enough to reach some of this forage themselves.

Thank you for your site. It helped me identify the Isabella Tiger Moth, a common moth caterpillar, but all the same , exciting to identify and know it will emerge in the spring! Looking for others now in the first frost of the season!

Thank you for writing your suggestions in a balanced and accurate manner.  This is an emotional topic for dog owners, and for trappers, many of them dog owners.  I ran a trapline as a teenager and had the misfortune of catching a beagle in a leg hold trap.  The trap was in a very small space so I don’t know how the dog managed to get caught, but surely his nose led him to the spot.  The dog was trembling with fear, and I was very upset, hoping to release him quickly.  I did not know enough to restrain him so the dog bit through my rubber waders in panic, but at least he was free and unharmed.  Hopefully events like this are very rare, and your information can help the humans, and animals involved.

Do you have info on Conibear traps?

Thanks for posting this information. We were educated about leg traps as well on this ocassion and I think people need to know how to release them. When I heard about Henry’s dilemma I had envisioned one of those old fashion traps with “teeth” that would cut into the leg and often the animal would bleed to death but fortunately those are illegal now. There has been a significant problem with coyotes here on the hill and the traps were set out to control the population. SO GLAD HENRY IS OKAY.

Thank you!

Altho its operation seems parasitical, the gall fly may actually aid the Goldenrod species it preys on. The top of the seed stalk above the gall may wither and break off. If it does, side shoots develop below the gall, so that the plant develops more seeds than one which has not been parasitized.

I read that the larvae also can make good bait for ice fishing, perch,crappy, etc. though I have not used them myself.

Want to take action & help understand where the pinch points are on roadways for wildlife across Vermont? Check out Cold Hollow to Canada’s citizen science project WildPaths on iNaturalist. Photo documentation of roadkill & successful crossings can be uploaded with your smartphone to this project. Data points can then be used by towns, individuals, conservation commissions and wildlife groups to better understand wildlife crossings and plan for infrastructure improvements, signage, and stewardship. More at http://bit.ly/iNat_WildPathsVT

We’ve always had skunks in our neighborhood but for some reason this year they’ve been really heavy in population. They always came near our townhomes because they like to eat birdseed that spills from the feeders. My wife and I have seen about 15 “regulars” this year and enjoyed watching the kits grow to juveniles to young adults. To identify most of them we’ve given them nicknames usually based on physical attributes but we’ve really enjoyed naming some based on their personalities we’ve learned.

I know it likely aggravated some neighbors but we’ve spent a lot of money feeding them from buying bulk items at the grocery store like brittle, nuts, berries, and banana chips. We’ve got hours of entertainment watching them do naturally cute and goofy things this year and never once have they sprayed out front of the house where we feed them. The occasional skunk has sprayed lose by but never in an area where we likely attracted them to. One advantage is our’s and all our neighbors’ garbage has been torn up less this year because they get their food from us.

I hate to sound all “Harry Potter Game Keeper” and stuff but skunks are seriously misunderstood creatures. They do only spray as a last resort and watching the baby kits stomp when they want something to leave is about one of the most adorable things in nature to see. They really don’t bother anyone and another cliche ‘are more afraid of you than you are of them’.

If you want a skunk to leave your area, deny their food source. Please don’t trap them as this stresses them out and if left for more than a day can actually kill them from this stress. Most of us likely have skunk visitors late at night and never even know it as they don’t stink 24/7. Like all wildlife you leave them alone and they will do the same in kind.

Thank you for a thoughtful piece on a daily occurrence. More and more we crowd the natural world with our excesses. Nice to see some, somewhere is attempting to mitigate our footprint on the land.

Interesting article! I am very aware and saddened by the roadkill that I encounter on the highways of VT and elsewhere. I was so stuck by the sheer number of deer that were killed on route 84 through PA on a recent road trip. One solution might be the wildlife bridges found in the Netherlands. Please see more here: http://unusualplaces.org/wildlife-crossing-in-netherlands/

A few years ago a friend and I found a den in some rocks. It was packed full of leaves and looked to be really comfortable. The kicker was, it was overlooking a brook lined with hardwoods.  Talk about waterfront property!

Burning firewood is almost an irony of sorts. How many of us have vowed to never depend on it as a source of heat only to find ourselves indebted to it in a “famous-last-words” bad joke?  That said, pretty much any of us that do burn firewood see it as a right of fall and winter seasons. We actually do seem to like processing it (at least a little at a time) despite our mur-murs. There truly is no other source of heat that leaves one feeling good through the body like heat from a woodstove.  Even in a power outtage we can still have heat without depending on electricity. Hmm, guess I’d better get shleping ‘ey?

So glad to read this. My kiddo & I raised a couple dozen black swallowtails this summer (the birds were eating them off my bronze fennel so we brought them inside) and 14 monarchs (-1 which had a parasitic fly larva). We had 1 swallowtail straggler who made his chrysalis very late & we were debating throwing it out of his bug carrier since it hadn’t hatched. I guess we’ll leave it on the porch & hope for a spring surprise.

Thanks for the interesting read about syrup. I actually didn’t know that the amino acids in maple sap increases as the sugaring season goes on. I’m interested to learn more if this is the case for different areas, or how the climate could affect how many amino acids there are.

My home in southwest NH had an attached woodshed with a tunnel from the basement to the woodshed and a lidded wood box in the mud room above the tunnel.  Didn’t even have to go outside to restock the woodbox although the woodshed was unheated so cold in the winter.