Trapper has engaging way of explaining the history of his field

Nuisance wildlife control and management professional 

Morgan Bennett III demonstrates the trap mechanism 

used in many muskrat traps. Photo by Tony Russo

Morgan Bennett III has been a lot of things. Mainly, though, he has been a trapper. 

Bennett started when he was five years old, trapping muskrats on a piece of marshland his parents had. He spent a lot of time stuck in the mud and a lot of time trekking back to the house to have his mother empty and reset the traps, since he lacked the strength to do either of those things himself. 

Bennett made his living as a trapper throughout his youth, learning to catch all manner of critters, from birds and bats to foxes and snakes. By the time he took his degree from what was then Salisbury State University, he already was an accomplished enough trapper that he was able to establish himself as a pest-removal specialist. 

Along the way he represented trapper and other ecological interests as a board member for the Maryland Fur Trappers and the National Trappers Association, although he no longer holds positions with the trappers’ political arm. He’s been under contract as well as on call for people who, for example, have problems with beavers taking down their trees or raccoons and foxes tormenting their chickens. 

But it was less his bona fides that won him an invitation to speak about the cultural and practical relationship of trapping to Delmarva recently at the Westside Historical Society in Mardela, than his delivery. Bennett speaks easily and engagingly about Delmarva’s furbearer history and its effect on the culture here.

The centerpiece of Delmarva trapping culture is muskrat, which has been a staple of subsistence farming diets probably since before Europeans were living here. But it was during the 20th century, when technology allowed muskrats to be captured en masse and sold for fur, that the muskrat became a central part of the trapping subculture on Delmarva. Many trappers hold down other jobs or farm in addition to trapping. 

It’s been estimated than in the middle 1960s nearly half-a-million muskrats were captured for food and fur on the Eastern Shore. By the late 1980s the fur market fell off, and muskrat trapping has struggled with ups and downs ever since. But it remains one of the more profitable trapping endeavors on the peninsula.

There is something of a balance between the trappers and furbearers in the area, which is what Bennett brings out when he discusses the practices local history. For example, when beavers were introduced to the Shore as part of a government restoration project, there were strict laws about trapping them. In fact, at first removing the beavers, which had come to be pests in the region, disturbing culverts and flooding farmland, was explicitly illegal. As the beaver population grew, took hold and began wreaking havoc on an increasing number of farms and households, a limited trapping season was introduced and has been expanded regularly ever since.

“We didn’t have a season on them in the 1970s,” Bennett said. “Now [beaver season] is longer than muskrat season.”

Although he speaks mostly on the cultural history of trapping and the economics of the fur trade, Bennett inevitably takes questions from the audience about dealing with pest problems. As a nuisance wildlife control and management specialist licensed in Maryland and Delaware, he is used to fielding questions from farmers and developers. But, increasingly, people who have begun raising chickens have been coming to him for help with foxes and raccoons.

“People often ask what’s the best way to protect their chickens,” he said. “The best way is to put them in for the night and behind a fence.”

Foxes and raccoons are opportunistic feeders and will stalk a particular chicken coop as long as there are birds and chicks to be had. A common complaint, he said, is that getting the fencing and installing it can be expensive. 

“I always tell them it’s no more expensive than having me come out and deal with your problem,” he said.

As part of his talk, Bennett demonstrated the traps and some of the ancillary hide preparation supplies. Fur is not radically different from meat in that it can go bad if not properly attended. There is an immense responsibility in checking the traps and skinning, drying and stretching the fur so that it remains of salable quality.

Looking to the future, Bennett doesn’t hold out much hope for the continuance of the red fox on the peninsula. 

Coyotes have been pushing east and displacing the foxes. With the introduction of a new predatory species, trappers may have to change their tactics and emphasis to meet the increased pressure coyotes can put on an ecosystem.

This story originally appeared in the March 26 edition of the Seaford Star