44-YEARS AN APPALACHIAN TRAPPER; NATURAL HISTORY ON THE BOBCAT-LINE | Trapper | Steve McCue

Steve McCue is a trapper, naturalist, all-around outdoorsman & Vice President of the West Virginia Trappers Association from Nicholas County, West Virginia. On this in-the-field episode we visit his wall-tent camp and head out for a morning on the bobcat trapline. After a 1929 reading about handling & relocating backcountry bobcats, Steve opens on the significance of the bygone American chestnut. We hear of his deep Appalachian roots & how his outdoorsman lifestyle is a spiritual pursuit that reaches back into pre-history where trapping was the oldest way to procure food & clothing. After some archaeological examples of ancient trapping, Steve describes the 4-types of modern trappers: the hobbyist, the animal damage controller, the longliner, and the territorial/conservationist. From there we get into the natural history of Steve's favorite furbearers starting with the gray fox whose population is in decline. Leaving the tent behind, Steve walks & talks on the trapline about such things as: chaga foraging; uses of birch bark; the origin of "fairy-diddle;" making cat sets; skunk essence; lure-making as the witchy side of trapping; and what one might find in a bobcat's stomach.  We wrap it up on what we've learned from reading historical accounts, how an inexperienced trapping family survived on plants alone in the north woods followed by Daniel Boone's bear bacon enterprise. 

Reading from West Virginia Wild Life Magazine Vol 7. Ep. 1 [1929]. 

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