By 1996, they reached the highest level ever recorded, raising concerns about property damage, disease outbreaks and problems for other wildlife that are part of the raccoon's menu. Higher harvest levels apparently helped to turn the tide. This spring's population was 20 percent lower. Numbers are still higher than in the 1970s and 80s, but reaching levels more comfortable for both people and the environment. About 80-85 percent of Illinois' 40,000 fur hunters and trappers market their pelts locally to 130 licensed buyers.
Buyers prepare the pelts for resale to other buyers or brokers.
Carcasses are generally sold to a licensed rendering facility where they are refined and used for products ranging from pet food to the manufacture of paint, tires and high quality lubricants. Furs are truly an international commodity. The same pelt might trade hands several times among U.S. buyers, go to an auction house in Canada, be purchased on contract by a broker representing a garment manufacturer in Greece and sold as a final product to a retailer in Russia or Hong Kong. Phone-in reservations for controlled pheasant hunting permits are now being taken. A limited number of bow hunters will be permitted to hunt white-tailed deer at Pere Marquette State Park , in the areas of Camp Piasa, Camp Quatoga, and Camp Potawatomi this fall.