Alberta Trappers Association Annual Logbook Update, 2024/25
Interim Report
Author(s)
Andrea Morehouse, Ph.D.
Michael Jokinen, B.Sc., P.Biol.
Robert Anderson, M.Sc., P.Biol.
Summary
Detecting furbearer population trends is a difficult task when relying on harvest records alone. Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) has been working with Alberta Trappers Association (ATA) to develop an approach that uses trapping effort to better understand furbearer trends. Since 2018, a subset of trappers within Alberta has voluntarily provided detailed harvest and effort information recorded in personal logbooks submitted annually. We synthesized these logbook data to estimate furbearer trends over large spatial scales. These logs are cast to gain a measure of catch-per-unit effort (CPUE), and over time a change in CPUE can indicate whether harvest is sustainable. We learned that many trappers were already keeping detailed personal records of their effort before using standardized logbooks. By using a standardized approach, we assess if the harvest and effort data provided by trappers enables us to detect CPUE for a given furbearer species, as well as detect population metrics at meaningful spatial scales.
Logbook data have been voluntarily provided for marten (Martes americana), lynx (Lynx canadensis), fisher (Martes pennanti), otter (Lontra canadensis), wolverine (Gulo gulo), and wolf (Canis lupus). In 2024, ACA published a detailed report covering furbearer harvest over a seven-year period from 2017/18 through the 2023/24 trapping seasons. This current report updates that information and summarizes harvest patterns including the 2024/25 trapping season.
A change in harvest regulations occurred for the 2024/25 season for all species previously restricted to particular harvest limits (i.e., quotas; lynx, fisher, otter, and wolverine), apart from those Fur Management Zones with zero harvest limits, which continued to apply. The number of trappers providing logbooks increased to 236 in the 2024/25 season, which is an increase over the previous long-term average of 167 participants per year. Trappers also spent 12.3% more time on trapping-related activities in 2024/25 compared to the previous seven-year average, spending an average of 474 hours per trapline. Harvest based on fur export permits increased this season as compared to the previous year for fisher, lynx, otter, and wolverine (i.e., species with removed limits), as well as for marten (i.e., no change to harvest limits).