The Saskatchewan government last week announced a two-pronged attack on the gopher infestation in the province’s southwest.
It has doubled the number of rural municipalities eligible to obtain two percent liquid strychnine poison, and it contributed $380,000 for research into long-term gopher control.
“When we’re done, only Gainer’s going to be safe,” premier Brad Wall told delegates at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities convention, referring to the Saskatchewan Roughrider football mascot.
Fifty-eight RMs were able to obtain two percent strychnine after it was approved for use last year. Another 60 have been added to the list.
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SARM president David Marit said the population of gophers, also known as Richardson’s ground squirrels, is out of control.
“They’re moving east and they’re moving north,” he told reporters. “It’s like they’re running out of food. Until you see it you can’t believe it.”
Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation paid out more than $1 million for gopher damage in the southwest last year.
The rodents have been running around above ground since last month and in some places they have been seen all winter.
SARM wants the emergency registration of two percent strychnine extended past July 31. The poison is available only on a limited basis because of environmental concerns.
Hawks, coyotes and other predators could eat the gophers that die from eating grain laced with strychnine.
Marit said he has talked to ranchers who have used the potent poison and they said most gophers crawl back into their holes after eating the bait.
However, he said there has to be a better control method than poison.
One hundred sixty-four RMs have contributed $500 each to the research project. Marit said that money and the provincial contribution should help lever some federal funding as well.
“I hope the research project will get us away from two percent strychnine and we’ll find an alternate use that is safe on the environment and it will work,” he said.
He’d also like it to be less labour intensive.
“I can’t imagine a rancher sitting on the corner of a section of land, 600 acres, with a pail and a spoon in his hand saying, ‘I’m going to put poison in every gopher hole’,” Marit said.
Agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud said he expects the strychnine will be needed for another year or two to get the problem under control.
“We know there’s concerns, public concerns, environmental concerns with this,” he said. “We’ve got such a problem out there, how else at this point can we deal with it?”
Strychnine is not cheap. A case costs about $100 and in some instances wouldn’t be enough to cover 160 acres, Marit said.
The research project will look at different rodenticides and natural predators that may help control efforts. It will be done in the southwest over several years.
