Initiative 713 recently passed in Washington State, effective December 7, assuring a short and more humane trapping season. But it also leaves no recourse for the forest industry trying to keep mountain beavers from chewing on tree seedlings or beavers from damming and flooding property. There's also now no recourse for nuisance animals on private property.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife who used limited types of traps for controlling nuisance animals will be saddled with new ways of doing things and must now write a new bill on how and when traps can and will be used.
Though this initiative is very much in the Washington State public eye right now, fur trapping methods and outcomes are nothing new to Washington State - though differing these days in relation to historical fur-trapping methods by trappers and modern views on said practices.
Unless you are familiar with Washington State history, you may not know what part the fur trading business had in our early history. A conversation with a journalist from Arizona prompted this article. Here's a short history lesson on some of the forts and fur traders which played a major part in our state's history.
Fort Astor
The first white man to travel the Columbia River from headwaters to sea, David Thompson, was sent to the area in 1811 by the North West Company to scout for a trading post site. To his chagrin he was beat to the task by Astor's Pacific Fur Company who'd already settled at the mouth of the Columbia River. Thompson decided to go ahead and set up post at the confluence of the Columbia and Okanogan Rivers, thinking that would be a better site. This was to be Washington State's first permanent settlement.
David Stuart of the Astor company heard of the plight (Thompson had posted notice before he set off to explore the Spokane area) and sent men to immediately build a fort, Fort Astor, just east of Brewster, Washington. It was used only a few years, as the treaty ending the war of 1812 forced surrender of the posts to the British.
The North West Company then built a new fort a mile upstream on the Columbia in 1817, which became the property of the Hudson's Bay Company. The post operated until 1860.
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