A decade ago, professional trapper Dan Eaton feared his craft was lapsing into obscurity. Today, he's not so sure.

Eaton, a host for the Georgia Trappers Association's 2013 convention in Columbia County next month, says "it's definitely on the rise again."

Fur prices, he said, have improved - and demand for nuisance trapping has increased rapidly.

Georgia's resurgent trapping industry can be documented by a gradual but sustainable increase in the number of licenses sold each year by the state's Department of Natural Resources.

Though license sales peaked at nearly 3,500 in the 1970s, the number declined to just 440 by 1998 because of declining interest and low fur prices.

Since then, the number of licenses has increased almost every year, totaling 1,129 last year.

Tags: Georgia Department of Natural Resources, trapping industry, trapping, georgia trappers association