Frost fell from the prairie grass as it moved around our legs. The sun had come up halfway through our walk, and water droplets began crawling up the denim of my jeans. Jack and Gunner, young labs and littermates, worked the cover intensely. Their backs, covered in white ice particles, began to steam off from the heat and excitement of the opening weekend.

We had bagged a few birds and were almost back to the pickup. With our attention on recounting the morning’s shots, the dogs roamed a little more freely. I was laughing at a joke being told when I caught one of the dogs crossing the property line out of the corner of my eye. I suddenly heard a hair-raising yelp. Everyone ran over to the sound and breathed a sigh of relief. It was Gunner, with his front paw in a foothold trap, as Jack pranced around him confused. What sounded like a sure emergency was just a brief interruption to the hike back. While I released his foot and sent him along unscathed, I thought to myself how this would have been a successful coyote set before we messed it up for the trapper.

Upland hunting and fur-harvesting have always had one major thing in common: habitat. It only makes sense that a trapper in search of these predators would have traps in areas of great bird cover.

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