September, 2026 President's Report

Greetings all. June 29th^th was our Summer Board meeting in Boone. Guests were Sandy Eckhardt, Judy Sells, Joe Dudley, Grace & Dale Rowson, Kristie Lambert, Jeff Milner and Tim Anderson.                                                                                               

Kristan reported our membership at 882 with 592 lifetime members. Mike Fletchall has been our only new lifetime since my last report. If you do not know, you can join or renew your membership to the association by going to the ITA website, under the Shop tab are all our membership options.  As always, Thank you to all our new and renewing members for your support.                                                                                                                         

Chris Grillot announced she has decided to decline the Board’s nomination for treasurer and will be retiring from the Board when her term is up. Chris has been treasurer since 2006, secretary from 1983 to 1986 then again from 1995 to 2005 and attended most meetings between with Ed. The nomination from the Board is now Dwaine Knouse for the treasurer position.  What many people do not know is Dwaine was nominated for the FTA treasurer position when Thad Sickles and Laura Gidney were stepping down. With this change, officer positions up for election this fall are president & treasurer, but nominations from the Board will be Craig Sweet for president and Dwaine Knouse for treasurer. Nominations will remain open until the General Membership meeting on September 12^th.

Grace and Dale Rowson presented the ITA’s sheared beaver coat and vest June 12 and 13th to Miss Iowa McKenzie Kerry of Des Moines and Miss Iowa Teen Emily Sutton from Dewitt. Congratulations to McKenzie and Emily and thank you to Grace and Dale for presenting. We hope to see the gals at convention in Charles City.

Our 2026 ITA sustaining donor patches with a bobcat and 2025 sustaining donor patches with a mink are still available. Since my last report Richard Gettle has been the only person to purchase patches – thank you Richard.  If you have not purchased one, they are $25 per patch for either year and are a way for anyone to assist ITA whether you are a member or not. If you would like one indicate year wanted, send a check made payable to ITA or Iowa Trappers Association. Mail your request to me, Craig Sweet 1825 Kirkwood St. Saint Charles, IA 50240 OR I will have them available at NTA in Richmond, IN, FTA in Macon, MO, Charles City at convention and Lexington, NE.

Iowa Trappers Association will be hosting beginner trapping classes in several locations around the state. Classes cover basics of Iowa’s trapping regulations, basic water, predator and dryland trapping. Currently classes are scheduled for the following locations -  July 11 Clayton Co. Conservation Board 29862 Osborne Rd. Elkader,  July 25 Marion Co. Sportsman Club 1702 Old Hwy 92 Knoxville, Aug 1 Washington Co Conservation Board - Marr Park 2943 Hwy 92 Ainsworth/ Washington, August 8 Silver Sioux Recreational Area 5938 Silver Sioux Rd. Cherokee, Sept 20 (Fur Handling Only) Sleepy Creek Tannery 209 N. Adams St. Wellsburg - limited to 10 students per 8 A.M. morning or 1 P.M. afternoon class, Sept 26 Lime Creek Nature Center 3501 Lime Creek Rd. Mason City, Oct 3 Hutton Valley School of Taxidermy 2514 Victory Lane St. Charles. To register for a beginner trapper or fur handling class see link below, go to the DNR calendar, click on event date then click on “go to event” to register.

https://license.gooutdoorsiowa.com/Event/Calendar.aspx

As in my last report the ITA will be raffling a Mossburg Patriot .22.250 bolt action with a Vortex 3x9x40 scope. Tickets are $20 ea. only 200 to be sold. Drawing will be held Saturday September 12^th at convention. Proceeds from this will assist with funding of traps, stakes ect. for our beginner trapper classes. If you are interested in a ticket or two contact Tony Evans at 319-548-0029 or agevans1961@gmail.com 

Convention will be held September 11-12 at the Floyd County Fairgrounds in Charles City. The fairgrounds are located just off Hwy 218 on Hwy 14. - address is 2516 - 7 Mile Rd. or about 1/3 mile west of Hwy 218. Motels are located about 3 miles south of the fairgrounds off Hwy 218. Motels in town and their direct phone numbers are: Sleep Inn & Suites 641-435-1949 – 20 rooms blocked under Iowa Trappers $110 per night 10 Double queen’s and 10 King.  Super 8 – 641-228-2888, Hometown Inn – 641-228-4820.  There will be plenty of electrical hookups available for everyone and plenty of primitive camping space but no real trees for shade. Primitive camping will be $10 per night & with electricity $20 per night, tailgating will be $25 per space for the weekend. Vendors that will be attending to date are: Funke Trap Tags, Cumberland’s, Keg Creek Baits & Lures, R&M Lures, Roberts Trading, No BS Lures, Top Lot Stretchers, Dakota Prairie Baits, Billingsley Brand Lures, Last Step Trap Supply/Tanning, Blakeley’s Bait & Lures, Fiber Tuff Pack Baskets, Cook Fur & Leather, MJ Enterprises, Sleepy Creek Tannery, Mike O’Hearn, Springleaf Stabilizers, Bret Smith – Lenon Lures, Blu-82 – Charise Oser, Charles City Chamber of Commerce, Iowa DNR, Roadrunner Snares, Scot D. Dahms, RM Skinning Machines, Backwater Baits, Papio Creek Lures, Frank’s Lures, Bass Brothers Lures, Mallard Curl Calls, WildFur By KB,  NTA, FTA, ITA.  A tentative schedule for convention can be viewed on our ITA website – www.iowatrappers.com 

Friday evening will be the potluck as it has been for many decades. We will also be holding a beginner trapper class starting at 9 A.M. Saturday morning for anyone interested. Dealer buildings will be open 8-6 Friday and 8-5 on Saturday, auction will begin at 7:30 Saturday.

Don’t forget the ITA photo contest. Most bring their photos to convention, get your photo/s to Tom Walters before noon Saturday for judging.  Also, remember to put your name on the back of your photo as well. Categories for the photo contest include Animal in Trap, Trapper and Catch, Multiple Catch and Youth - 16 & under.

The first of 7 Beginner Trapper classes was held yesterday in Elkader. We had 22 attendees, both youth and adult. I spoke with a gentleman whose family had traveled almost 3 hours to attend. We always ask attendees how they found out about the class. As always, social media has been the avenue which has the most votes by far. Thank you to - Joe Dudley who organized the location details at Clayton County Conservation’s Osborne Nature Center, Chris Jones and Vince Evelsizer covered regulations and DNR info, Jeff Milner covered dryland trapping, Bruce Rhoads covered predator trapping and using cages, Kerry Beastle covered water trapping, Cammie Milner served lunch and I covered ITA info. Everyone left happy with their new trapping equipment and bait, adults appreciated the class presentation and information.

That is about it for now. I will close this report with our final meetings for this year. ITA’s Fall Board meeting will be held THURSDAY September 10th 7 P.M. at the Floyd County Fairgrounds, General Membership meeting will be held at 1:30 P.M. Saturday September 12^th.

As always, all members are welcome and encouraged to attend.  Til next time - Craig

July 2026 President's Report

Greetings all. April 12th was our Spring Board meeting in Boone. Our membership is currently at about 887ish with 591 lifetime members. We added a few more new members and lifetimes at both Chelsea and Fairfield. New lifetime members since my last report are Riley Shea, Doug Barnes, Last Step Trap Supply & Tanning, Nick Bohms & Timothy L. Rainey. Thank you to all our new and renewing members.

The ITA has received our sheared beaver coat and vest for next months crowning of Miss Iowa and Miss Teen. ITA has given a fur coat to Miss Iowa since 1990 and vest to Miss Teen since 2017. To date all gals have greatly appreciated receiving these items as the coat and vest are the ONLY items they are able to retain after their resign. Also, with this sponsorship we are allowed the gals presence twice during their reign. We have also signed a 2-year agreement with Miss Iowa Pageant to continue our sponsorship of Miss Iowa and Miss Teen events in the future.

I finally received info about our ITA license plate decals we were applying for through the DOT. After sending in corporation, bylaws, non-profit papers etc. our application was denied. The reason for denial was we were not a 501c3

organization, but a 501c4. It would have been a lot easier to indicate you need to be a 501c3 from the start instead of going through all that work, two times to boot. Oh well that is government!!

As most know, the ITA has animal mounts we utilize at some events, most were donated by Roger Hutton. Due to storage space in our trailer, the ITA Board has decided to donate those mounts. I received a call a few days prior to writing this report from A Jay Winter of the DNR. Those mounts will be heading to the DNR Building at the Iowa State Fair for display and will seen by many more people than ever viewed them while in our possession. If you are in the DNR building at the State Fair look for those mounts.

Mike Fletchall will oversee demo area sponsorships again this year. They are $100 for a 2ft X 3ft banner and need to be in by August 1st deadline as last year. Contact Mike at 641-202-1115 or Fletch_70@hotmail.com

Officer positions up for election this fall are president & treasurer. Nominations from the Board are Craig Sweet and Chris Grillot for their current positions. Nominations will remain open until the General Membership meeting on September 12th.

There were two legislative bills addressed and passed this session, both are headed to the Governor for signing. SF 654 would allow breaching beaver dams, being able to use your DNR ID number on trap tags and reducing fur buyer license fees to $50 regardless of resident status. The other was HF2471 which addresses disabled veteran’s lifetime fur harvester license fee. This would set that fee at $5 plus processing fee for that license. A little FYI info on trap tags, this will allow use of EITHER your name and address or DNR ID number whichever you prefer. You can still use your current tags or can buy new tags with your DNR number.

Our 2026 ITA sustaining donor patch features a bobcat. I still have a few 2025 sustaining donor patches available with a mink. If you have not purchased one, they are $25 per patch for either year and are a way for anyone to assist ITA whether you are a member or not. If you would like one, send a check made out to ITA or Iowa Trappers Association. Mail it to me, Craig Sweet 1825 Kirkwood St. Saint Charles, IA 50240 and I will get them mailed to you. I will also have them available at NTA, FTA, Charles City and Nebraska. People who have donated since my last report are Vaughn Suhling, Logan Exline, Chad Walker, Tim Anderson, Spencer Hill, Jon Andersen & Dennis Johnson. Thank you all for your support of the ITA.

Iowa Trappers Association in conjunction with the Iowa DNR will be hosting beginner trapping classes during the July to October timeframe in several locations around the state. Classes cover basics of Iowa’s trapping regulations, water, predator and basic dryland trapping. Currently, classes are being planned near the following locations - Knoxville, Washington, Cherokee, Elkader, Mt. Pleasant, Mason City, St Charles, Wellsburg, and possibly Harlan. As soon as dates are confirmed I will send them out and post them on our ITA website.

The ITA will be raffling a Mossburg Patriot .22.250 bolt action with a Vortex 3x9x40 scope. Tickets are $20 ea. with only 200 available. Drawing will be held Saturday September 12th at convention. Proceeds from this will assist with funding of traps, stakes ect. for our beginner trapper classes. If you are interested in a ticket or two contact Tony Evans at 319-548-0029 or agevans1961@gmail.com

I will be attending the NTA National July 23-25th in Richmond, IN, FTA Rendezvous August 7-8th in Macon, MO. due my positions on these Boards. I plan on attending Nebraska Fur Harvesters convention September 25-26th in Lexington and depending on weather conditions I may attend a couple more as well.

Make plans for September 11-12, 2026, at the Floyd County Fairgrounds in Charles City. This is going to be another great location for us with easy access off Hwy 218 at Hwy 14. Motels are located about 3 miles south of the fairgrounds off Hwy 218. The motels and their direct phone numbers are: Sleep Inn & Suites 641-435-1949 – 20 rooms blocked under Iowa Trappers $110 per night 10 Double queen’s and 10 King. Super 8 – 641-228-2888, Hometown Inn – 641-228-4820. There will be plenty of electrical hookups available for everyone and plenty of primitive camping space as well. Primitive camping will be $10 per night & with electricity $20 per night, tailgating will be $25 per space for the weekend. I have contacted my normal inside vendors plus a few new vendors are attending. Vendors that will be attending to date are: Funke Trap Tags, Cumberland’s, Keg Creek Baits & Lures, R&M Lures, Roberts Trading, No BS Lures, Top Lot Stretchers, Dakota Prairie Baits, Billingsley Brand Lures, Last Step Trap Supply/Tanning, Blakeley’s Bait & Lures, Fiber Tuff Pack Baskets, Cook Fur & Leather, MJ Enterprises, Sleepy Creek Tannery, Mike O’Hearn, Springleaf Stabilizers, Bret Smith – Lenon Lures, Blu-82 – Charise Oser, Charles City Chamber of Commerce, Iowa DNR, Backwater Baits, Papio Creek Lures, Frank’s Lures, Mallard Curl Calls, WildFur By KB, NTA, FTA, ITA. A tentative schedule for convention can be viewed on our ITA website – www.iowatrappers.com

Friday evening will be the potluck. We will again be holding a beginner trapper class starting at 9 A.M. Saturday morning as we have in the past for anyone interested. Dealer buildings will be open 8-6 Friday and 8-5 on Saturday

Also, don’t forget the ITA photo contest. Most bring their photos to convention, get your photo/s to Tom Walters before noon Saturday for judging. Also, remember to put your name on the back of your photo as well. Categories for the photo contest include: Animal in Trap, Trapper and Catch, Multiple Catch and Youth (16 & younger).

ITA’s Summer Board meeting will be held Sunday June 28th at the Boone Senior Center 1112 Story St in Boone starting at 10 A.M. The Fall Board of Directors meeting will be held THURSDAY September 10th at 7 P.M. at the Floyd County Fairgrounds in Charles City, General Membership meeting will be held at 1:30 P.M. Saturday September 12th. As always, all members are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Til next time - Craig

May 2026 President's Report

Greetings all.

February 8th was our Winter Board meeting. Wayne Divelbess was voted in as our new District 13 Director. Wayne and his girls have been supporters of the ITA and had assisted Jim Noneman at times running a booth at different events in the area. Thank you, Wayne for accepting the position.

Kristan reported our membership at 879 with 586 lifetimes, about 550ish of those lifetime members are currently living. Our new lifetime members since my last report are Cody Burgin, Vaughn Peyton, Zach Grossman, Amanda Brogan and Levi Sandquist. The ITA made donations to FTA, NTA, Iowa Wildlife Society, ITA/NTF banquet and a plaque for the Best Furbearer mount at the Iowa Taxidermy Show. Bills covering breaching beaver dams, trap tag DNR ID number and reducing fur buyer license fees are in House Ways and Means (just passed sub-committee on 3/11) so there is no funnel deadline. Lifetime disabled Vets license is being revised to reduce fee to original cost instead of increasing that cost 5% being proposed by DNR.

Craig Eckhardt has only received 1 scholarship application as of the Winter meeting. The scholarship application (due April 1 st ) and guidelines are printable off the ITA website. We would like to see more applications for any college-bound students who are/or guardians are current members of the association. Go to www.iowatrapper.com to print application and view guidelines, The SE Quadrant announced that Monroe County Fairgrounds in Albia will be the location for our 2027 convention. I looked over the grounds back in October, buildings, location and camping availability on grounds will be another good location for us. Thank you to Richard Tharp for overseeing location details. The ITA’s annual Legislative Breakfast was held February 19th at the Statehouse. This was our 16 th year where we had a display of pelts, coats, fur teddy bears and other fur accessories. We had multiple Senators and Representatives stop by to chat and look over our display of fur items. This event has proven to be a cost-effective way to connect with legislators personally.

Our 2026 ITA sustaining donor patches are available. This year, the patch features a bobcat design. I still have a few 2025 sustaining donor patches available as well which have a mink design. If you have not purchased one, they are $25 per patch for either year and are a way for anyone to assist ITA whether you are a member or not. If you would like one, send a check made out to ITA or Iowa Trappers Association. Mail it to me, Craig Sweet 1825 Kirkwood St. Saint Charles, IA 50240 and I will get them mailed to you.

People who have donated since my last report are Uriah Thomas, James Blauwet, Idaho Trappers Association, Evan Foreman, Eric Smargiasso, Travis Dudley, Sam Hutton, Kelly Willett, Mary Thomas, Rusty Kramer, Steve Bowers, Jim McNeill, Richard Tharp, Tom Walters, Larry Jacobson, Darrell & Carolyn Marak, Calvin Barber Thank you all for your support of the ITA.

As I stated in my last report, on March 6-8th we had a booth at the Iowa Deer Classic in Des Moines. Our booth was on the Upper-Level Grand Concourse. Friday and Saturday were VERY busy while Sunday was much slower with much lower attendance. We received 2 new lifetime members there, Zach Grossman and Amanda Brogan, as well as 2 new annual members. We had all harvestable Iowa furbearer pelts and some fur items on display for all to see and touch. A lot of good conversations were had during the event. It was a long weekend, but well worth our time and presence. Thank you to Kristan, Allyson, Dave, Tony, Calvin, Cody for all your help during the weekend.

The ITA applied for special DOT approved ITA license plate stickers. Joe Dudley is heading this project and has found the DOT “did not receive” our application I sent back in September. Well, we are attempting this again with an online version instead of snail mail like last time. We will see how this goes and will let you know when I know something as I stated prior.

Last night, March 14 th , the ITA held our 24th annual NTF/ITA banquet at the Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel. This location has become a very good place for us to host this banquet. The staff, food, table setup have made hosting this event almost effortless. The gal that oversaw the room setup had taken pictures of how we had tables setup last year. We walked in at 8 A.M. and had to reposition only a FEW tables in the whole room. We had about 300 attendees including Matt Lumley and his young men and Mike & Vickie Sievering. Overall, think everyone had a good time as usual. This year we had 11 corporate and 29 sponsors for the banquet. Thank you to the many people and businesses who donated items for the evening. Also, I want to thank Cody and Tracy Hutton, Bret Smith for being MC/auctioneer, Nat Hill for clerking, Black Flag Arsenal for our firearms as well as all the committee members and everyone who attended to make this event so successful.

Make plans for September 11-12, 2026, at the Floyd County Fairgrounds in Charles City. This is going to be another great location for us with easy access off Hwy 218 at Hwy 14. Motels are located about 5 miles south of the fairgrounds off Hwy 218. There will be plenty of electric hookups available for everyone and plenty of primitive camping space as well. I have contacted my normal inside vendors plus a couple new. Craig Eckhardt has contacted Charles City’s Marketing & Tourism Coordinator and is working with her to promote the city and assist in promoting our convention in the local area.

April 12 th will be our next Board meeting as well as June 28 th . Both meetings will be held at the Boone Senior Center 1112 Story St in Boone starting at 10 A.M. As always, all members are welcome to attend.

Til next time - Craig