Alaska Trapping Regulations

Retiree Saw Commission Grow, Evolve

During his 37-year career with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, retired Lt. Charlie Bonner saw the agency evolve in ways he never imagined.

When he joined the agency, Bonner said wildlife officers only enforced hunting, fishing and boating regulations, but that changed when they became certified law enforcement officers a little more than 10 years ago.

"We started working drug enforcement and alcohol-related enforcement; a lot of the drugs and meth labs and stuff like that are found in the rural areas," Bonner said. "It's evolved (the

AGFC) ... and it's been for the better."

Bonner, 56, said the passage of Amendment 75 by Arkansas voters in 1996 was also a significant development for the enforcement division of the agency.

The amendment designated one-eighth of the revenue from the state's

1 percent general sales tax be divided among the

AGFC, Arkansas State Parks, Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission and Arkansas Heritage Commission.

That revenue provided funds for specialized equipment like night-vision goggles, weapons, four-wheel drive trucks, all-terrain vehicles and boats, Bonner said.

"It's become a more dangerous job," Bonner said.

Guy Fenter was superintendent of Charleston Public Schools and a member of the AGFC board when Bonner approached him about getting a job with AGFC.

"I told him, ‘You don't want to do that, you'll starve to death,'" Fenter said.

But Bonner took a job in the wildlife management division as a laborer at Fort Chaffee in March 1974.

Fenter said he thought Bonner would move on when he found a better-paying job, but Bonner had found his dream job - almost.

"What I really wanted to do was be a game warden in Alaska, but I never made it to Alaska," Bonner said. "I never had even been there; it was more of a fantasy."

But the job at Chaffee allowed him to work outside, which was how he grew up in Charleston.

"I just loved the outdoors and grew up hunting and fishing my whole life," Bonner said.

Fenter said he'd like to say Bonner was a model student while in school, but joking pointed out "we still used the paddle then."

But as a wildlife officer, Fenter described Bonner as unyielding but fair.

"He would even arrest me if I did something wrong," Fenter said.

After working a couple of years at Chaffee, Bonner moved on and helped establish the 280,000-acre White Rock Wildlife Management Area, which stretches across five counties in the Ozark National Forest.

Alaska Trapping - Living the Dream (Part 32) - The Michigan ...

Corey suggested that I might want to attend the up coming Wolf Trapping Class being conducted by Mark Schlenker and Dan Grangaard, two prominent wolf trappers, who between them have harvested over 1,000 wolves during their trapping careers. This seminar is a weekend long training session being offered under the Alaska Trappers Association education program. Unfortunately, I have to make a quick trip outside to fulfill some Grandfather duties in Denver, so I will be away during this event. Operating a snowmachine on an Alaskan trap line can be a trilling undertaken. In addition to the problems of maneuvering a snowmachine, in normal years, over five foot of dry powdery snow, across lakes covered with three foot of snow covered slush, there is the treacherous phenomenon called "Glaciation". Glaciation, as best as I can describe, is a process where water seeping from the ground, produces wavy sheets of nasty yellow colored ice, that resembles a field of solidified Volcanic lava flow. These glaciation fields can form on side hills, as well as, in what had be dry stream bed. During the dead of winter at temperatures of 30 and 40 below zero this process seems to accelerate.

Alaska trapping regulations

Alaska trapping regulations, no.26. Regulations effective, July 1, 1985-June 30, 1986

Farmers' bulletin

Laws Relating to Fur-Bearing Animals

Code of Federal Regulations, Title 50, Wildlife and Fisheries, Pt. 18-199, Revised as of October 1, 2010