During the mid 1800s, the otter began to decline throughout New York state. Deforestation, polluted water and unregulated trapping were responsible for its demise. Its last strongholds were the Adirondacks, the Catskills and the Hudson Valley. In 1936 the trapping season was closed on the otter and it wasn’t resumed until 1945 with more restrictive seasons and bag limits.

Then, in 1994, the River Otter Project came into being. This was a cooperative effort of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and concerned citizens. Trappers volunteered to live-trap otters in the strongholds. Over the course of the project, 279 otters were caught and then released at 16 sites in Western New York. None were released in the Alabama Swamps as the trappers here voted against it. They use a large, killer-type trap for winter trapping of muskrat and believed that they would accidental kill some of the otters.

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