The objectives of the project are fourfold: (l) to determine the annual muskrat harvest in a county of southwestern Virginia; (2) to determine the economic value of the annual muskrat harvest in a county in southwestern Virginia; (3) to determine, in so far as possible, those factors which limit a greater harvest of muskrats in southwestern Virginia and; (4) to compare the economic returns from muskrat in a southwestern Virginia county with the economic returns from muskrat in an eastern Virginia county or counties, It is hoped that data obtained in this investigation will serve as bases for 18 management recommendations which might increase the annual muskrat production on Virginia streams and marshes and which might, in some measure, bring recognition to, and stress the importance of, one of our most valuable animals. / Master of Science