Once a month, Martha. I’ve gotten used to it.
We get Misunderstood Martha, the good-hearted girl beneath the barnacles.
The little miss that a touch of kindness will bring to bloom again.
I believed it more times than I’d admit. I’m that much of a sucker.

Edward Albee “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Every so often, I’ve come to expect it, there drops like mana from the sky a story about how beaver trappers are really just “good folk in touch with the land” who, for the good of society, scratch out their meager existence by pursuing the ancient art of their fathers. They usually pass it onto their children. (Of course they have children. Usually lots of them. Because good christian white men always do.)

You would think I’d get tired of reviewing these articles, and the fawning reporters who write them. But I never ever do. Since my very first slice and dice visiting these hallowed halls brings me a grim pleasure that few other things in life can rival. Of course it will never be that good again. You always remember your first.

Trapper explains why studying critters plays crucial role in helping out farmers

Luverne’s Matt Buntjer traps various animals, and is passing the sport on to his children. Matt Buntjer first became interested in trapping in high school — through a friend of his dad’s — and has gotten more serious about the sport over the last eight to 10 years.

“I always loved being outside,” he said. A lifelong hunter and fisherman, Buntjer was drawn to trapping because of the mental challenge.

Oh now there just making this too easy for me.  Matt has always loved being outdoors. A real nature guy. Of course he took up the practice of killing said nature. It’s just what happens when you love something that much. Ask his wife in a few years.

To be successful at trapping, he has to know the animals really well, by reading extensively about them and studying their patterns. After awhile, it becomes almost second nature to observe and trace critters’ paths.

“One of the things I love about trapping is that you’re there every single day, so you see so much more wildlife,” Buntjer said. “You see a lot of things most people don’t get to see.”

For example, he knows that at certain times of day, he’ll see a group of deer in a given spot while he follows his trapping route. It’s not uncommon for him to pause on his way and say a prayer of thanks that he gets to see God’s glory and creation up close.

I can hear his prayer now. “Dear god, please please don’t let them get away. And thanks for letting me see them before I shoot them. Because they really don’t look as nice afterwards.”

As a busy husband, father of four and employee with the city of Luverne, about 30 miles east of Sioux Falls, S.D., Buntjer relishes the quiet time that trapping gives him. However, he also loves that trapping has become a family activity. On the weekends, Kaitlin and the kids like to join him in checking traps, bringing back whatever they’ve caught and making adjustments to the route.

While the youngest Buntjer, Jonny, is too little to appreciate trapping yet, the older three have embraced the sport, especially the boys, Brody (10) and Danny (5). In fact, this season, Brody and Danny ran their own raccoon trap line.

Have you ever noticed, in your many treks across the unpaved trail, when a horrible tick finally has the good fortune to land on your body it walks around for a while surveying its options. It’s almost like its aware it has it so good it’s not sure where to start. “Mine Mine Mine! This is all mine! ” “I’m rich! I’m a king! I could bite anywhere I choose” For a while it seems giddy with success.

Which is how I feel reading this. Where the hell should I start?

Is it with the little Buntjers playing at trapping raccoons while their father kills the bigger things? Is it the meek goodnatured wife that thinks its sweet her husband just “really likes puzzles”. You know like the serial killer Dexter always finds out who did it and tracks him down?

Cross words. Cross bows. It’s really all the same.

In addition to sharing his skills with his own children, Buntjer enjoys working with area youths who are interested in trapping.

“The education side of it has been a lot of fun for me,” he said.

At the end of each school year, Luverne Elementary students usually go on a field trip to Blue Mounds State Park, and Buntjer gives a presentation on animals that live nearby and lets them touch the animals’ furs.

Sure. You can’t keep that kind of understanding bottled up. You have to share it with the children. Because NATURE. Gosh I wish my children went to school in his area so they could touch the dead bodies too.

Part of Buntjer’s goal in trapping education is to correct the misconception that trapping is evil or malicious. In his view, trapping actually helps take care of the environment. When a certain species becomes too concentrated, he said, it becomes easier for disease to spread among that species and severely decimate the population. For example, when coyotes are overpopulated, they will commonly contract mange, which makes their fur fall out. Mangy coyotes cannot keep themselves warm, and freeze to death. Buntjer believes it’s more humane to “help maintain more of a balance” through trapping.

Oh the humanity! You are so right Matt. It is much kinder to kill things before they have a chance to get sick on their own. In fact we could wipe out all of Covid if Biden just followed your example with a little more passion. You are right of course that trappers are the victim of cruel misconceptions.

I’m having one right now.