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:~' . I I I ......iI ~ ~~/ZJ(14 ~ ~~t 1001 - 'rd St., N. W. New Brighton, MN 55112 September 13, 1979 Mr. Vernon C. Pederson, Clerk/Manager City of New Brighton 803 - 5th Av., N. W. New Brighton, Mn 55112 Dear Mr. Pederson: Every fall and winter, numerous New Brighton teenagers -and some adults-- brave the harsh weather to check their muskrat traplines and eash in on one of Minnesota's abundant and renewable natural resources. In so doing, these hardy youngsters are following one of the oldest traditions in the North Country, the fur-gathering tradition on which this state was founded. But next winter they cannot. I have just learned that last February the City of New Brighton passed Ordinance No. 445, "Prohibiting the Use of Certain Traps within the City of New Brighton." I would like to ask the City Council to repeal that ordinance. At first glance, the ordinance might appear to have merit. Because many people no longer trap furbearing animals, a focus on the tools of the trade might persuade the public to ban them. Similarly, if most people did not fish, a focus on the barbed hook might persuade the public to ban that device. But since most people do fish, and thus utilize the barbed hook with- out compunction, there 60 far have been no viable movements to outlaw the use of the barbed hook in New Brighton. No person when confronted with a barbed hook, a trap, an expanding bullet, or a razor-edged arrowhead is going to look favorably upon those instruments unless he or she is familiar with the context in which they are used, and the reasons why they must be employed. Some citizens feel that there is no reason that can justify the use of these instruments --or any others-- to kill fish and wildlife. Such people have chosen the steel trap as the first instrument they wish to outlaw because the general public is least familiar with trapping and thus most easily persuaded against it. However, when seen in context, trapping is merely one more way in which humans harvest wildlife for sport and profit and help to control populations that may be destructive to man's interests. Within l/S mile of City Hall, many teenagers have peacefully spent numerous exciting hours checking their traps and earning hundreds of dollars every year, to the harm of absolutely no one. The only effect these trappers have had is to reduce the numbers of muskrats that freeze to death, get flattened on the roads each spring, or that undermine the banks of the property owners on Long Lake and other area waterways. Professional ecologists will attest to this.