By Guy Page
The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Board October 14 will consider expanding the trapping season on bobcats — a move requested by trappers but opposed by an anti-trapping organization.
The Vermont Trappers Association is asking the board to extend the current bobcat trapping season through Dec. 31, making the season run from Dec. 1 through Dec. 31 and coincide with the fisher season.
Mike Covey, executive director of the Vermont Trappers Association, argues that a longer season would give trappers more access to a wildlife resource without threatening Vermont’s bobcat population. He said a similar proposal was considered a decade ago but did not advance after the Fish & Wildlife Department sought five more years of population data.
“It has now been 10 years, and I am certain the data will bear out that there has been no significant change in the population,” Covey wrote in the petition. “In the absence of a compelling biological reason to anticipate a population level impact from harvesting a few more bobcats, there’s no reason not to move forward with this change.”
Covey pointed to what he called generally stable catch-per-unit-effort data. Over the past decade, trapping has accounted for an average of 47 bobcats annually, while average total mortality from trapping, hunting, road kills and other causes was 109. The annual total ranged from 84 in 2018-19 to 139 in 2022-23.
He also cited a Fish & Wildlife Department report saying bobcats are found in all 21 of Vermont’s wildlife management units and that their distribution has remained relatively stable over time.
Another argument for the extension, Covey said, is research. Every legally harvested bobcat must be reported and its carcass turned over to the department, providing wildlife biologists with specimens for study. Covey said increasing the number of animals available for examination could improve the state’s biological data.
“Statistical data can only improve through a larger sample size,” he wrote.
Covey also said doubling the length of the trapping season would not necessarily double the harvest. The Trappers Association supports a separate proposal to reduce the allowable opening on baited, ground-set body-gripping traps. Covey said that change would effectively eliminate one method of taking bobcats and could partly offset additional harvest resulting from a longer season.
The association also argues that Vermont law and the state Constitution support public access to wildlife for hunting and trapping. Covey said that absent biological evidence showing a population problem, the state should provide additional opportunity to people who want to use the wildlife resource.
Protect Our Wildlife President Brenna Galdenzi of Stowe opposes the proposal, arguing that there is no biological need to increase bobcat mortality.
Galdenzi pointed to recent catch-per-unit-effort figures of 1.56 and 2.20 for the past two seasons, both below the 10-year average of 2.42. She acknowledged that those figures do not establish that Vermont’s bobcat population is declining, but said they also do not provide a reason to expand trapping.
She also raised concerns about anticoagulant rodenticides. According to figures she cited from department testing, rodenticides were detected in 69% of sampled bobcats in 2021-22 and 70% in 2024-25. Galdenzi said disease, severe winters and other threats provide additional reasons for caution.
The Fish & Wildlife Board voted 9-2 to accept the Trappers Association petition for further consideration, with members Steven Deimling and Mark Deen opposed. The vote did not approve the season extension. The board is expected to consider the department’s recommendations before deciding how to proceed.