The Yukon Trapper's Association is caught in a no-win situation.

The indebted non-profit organization owes almost $7,000 in unpaid rent, but its directors can't do anything to raise the money to pay their landlord because he's locked them out of their headquarters, board secretary and treasurer Jackie Yaklin told the Star last week.

"The only way we'll ever pay the bill is if he lets us in there," Yaklin said in an interview.

The association's financial troubles came to light earlier this year, when a new board of directors took over in June.

The all-rookie slate took control of the society, only to find that a formerly financially robust organization was many thousands of dollars in debt.

Yaklin, who used to be an employee of the Trappers' Association, said she thinks the decision to move storefronts - from its longtime home in the industrial area to a building on the Alaska Highway - contributed to the slide into debt.

"They paid $18,000 in rent for a place they were no longer in," she said, referring to a six-month overlap during which the organization paid rent on two properties.

Other than rent, Yaklin said she wouldn't speculate on other financial decisions made by the previous board.

"Until we can look at the financial documents that are locked in there, we don't know where it all went."

Yaklin said as far as she knew, the association was always in the black, an assumption backed by documents filed in the Supreme

Court which show the group had investments of upwards of $24,000 in the last fiscal year.

Questions to that effect were not answered at the society's annual general meeting in June because none of the former board members attended.

The association, which represents 120 trappers across the territory, went public with its financial woes at the Council of Yukon First Nations' general assembly earlier this summer when it asked the first nations to help it out. The request was part of an overall plan by the association's executive to save the group from extinction.

"Some people were saying we should just declare bankruptcy and start from scratch," Yaklin said. "But we believe we can save the association and we're working on that right now."

Shortly after being collectively turned down by the first nations, the trappers'group hit another bump - its landlord, Yellow Cabs owner Graham Jackson, made good on a promise made in June and changed the locks on the association's storefront.

Inside there is at least $50,000 worth of merchandise, equipment, training material and more, which the association says it needs in order to raise the money Jackson is owed.

In addition to the trappers association's property, there is also thousands of dollars' worth of consigned merchandise, which belongs to the trappers and artisans who entrusted it to the association.

"According to the Landlord and Tenant Act, he can (hold) our goods, but only an amount equal to what he's owed," Yaklin says.

That is the argument Yaklin has made on behalf of the society in a petition filed with the Supreme Court last week.

In it, the association asks for an order enabling it to access the goods and/or the financial documents, which must be filed with the government next month.

Also inside is the written lease agreement made with Jackson, which most of the board has never seen.

Jackson, who has been threatening a small claims action against the association since June, said he won't open up until he gets the $7,000 he is owed for rent and unpaid utility bills.

Speaking to the Star last week, he said locking the doors was his last resort after talks about the money went nowhere.

Each side says the other is being unreasonable.

Meanwhile, those trappers who gave their furs to the society to be sent to the auction house are out of luck, as are the beaders and others who left their goods in the society's care.

The trappers association's dire straits are reflected in a reduced number of members; currently half of the 240 trappers who have paid membership fees up until last year are no longer on the list.

Rumours and buck-passing have contributed to that loss in membership, Yaklin said, and the new board is hoping to win the trappers back by showing them they have a plan to get things back on track.

The trappers association will be in court this afternoon, when a judge will hear its argument over the locked door.