President's Letter

by Randy Zarnke

Votes for the Board of Directors have been counted. The three highest totals belong to Jim Masek, Joe Letarte and John Zuleger. "Welcome back" to Jim and "welcome aboard" to Joe and John. We look forward to your energy and new ideas. We extend our gratitude to Kyle Davison and Keith Bayha who served on the Board for the past three years. We appreciate your past contributions and look forward to your continued input.

Participation in our Duck Tape Contest has concluded. Bill Brophy of Fairbanks is the big winner. He will receive a case of "The Handy Man's Friend" courtesy of our sponsor, Duck Brand duct tape. Thanks to the good folks at Duck Brand for their support of this fun contest.

The Fling has been flung. Saturday March 19 was the magic date. The organizing committee put together a fun event this year. We missed the organizing force of Angel Knapp, but it was still a highly successful conclusion to our annual cycle.

• We presented a big check to NTA Vice President Karola Owen, who was in town for the event.
• Jeff Wells was awarded the Dean Wilson scholarship. Jeff is a grad student at UAF. Unfortunately, neither Jeff nor Dean were present. This was the first Fling since Dean passed away. We missed his strong presence, but were pleased to have other members of the Wilson family with us.
• Shorty Wilbur's name was added to the Hall of Fame plaque. Shorty has always been willing to help out ATA in any way necessary.
• Mark Schlenker of Gakona was named as the Fabian Carey Trapper of the Year. Mark's dedication to education and the trapping lifestyle were the attributes which earned him ATA's highest honor.

The Board of Directors meets each year on the morning after The Fling. With Directors living outside of the immediate area, this is often our only opportunity to have everyone together in the same room. This year, the discussion focused on unity within the trapping community. We strive to serve trappers throughout the State. We occasionally hear rumors of dissatisfaction. We'd like to address those issues head-on. Rather than viewing them as hurdles or challenges, we'd like to view them as opportunities. That may sound like jargon from the business world, but that’s the way that we see it. We had a long discussion that Sunday morning and look forward to further dialogue with members throughout the State. Please feel free to contact anyone on the Board of Directors to share your thoughts. Our goal is to preserve and promote trapping throughout Alaska. Please help us achieve that goal.

We've come to the end of another trapping season. The weather threw us a few challenges this winter, but we've come to expect that. Furbearer population levels and pelt prices were good. No complaints there. The "anti" crowd didn't launch any major attacks. We appreciate that. Given all of those factors, we must conclude that it was a GREAT season. Now, we've got that long "dry spell" until the snow flies and we can get back out on the 'line. Don't despair. You'll find things to do during this off season. Who knows, you might even enjoy it. See you in September.