PENHOLD – Town officials are once again looking to control the gopher population in the municipality.
Earlier this summer, council passed a motion to have administration look into addressing gopher concerns in town.
According to town officials, there is now an infestation of gophers along the storm pond banks.
At a council meeting on July 22, council voted to move forward with a proposal to contract Canex Pest Control Services to reduce the number of gophers.
The proposal included both live trapping and poison methods and would start as soon as possible.
"They'll be working on the project (until October). It's a detailed plan and they follow up with the trapping," said Penhold mayor Mike Yargeau. "It's a mixture of methods. Poison is a portion of the project and trapping is a portion."
The proposal is a non-budgeted item with a cost of $10,349. 59.
Council discussed a number of areas and raised questions including the impacts of poison on the environment and nearby watershed, and potentially other animals such as birds and family pets.
“I don’t know what the other options would be. We have to do something, but I worry about the poison,” said Coun Mike Walsh, who voted against the motion.
“Even if it’s a small or little chance of another animal getting sick or dying, or even a child. We have kids that run around and play and you just never know.
“There’s a real fine line for me here, of what we have to do,” he added.
Other areas discussed included secondary transfer of poison to other animals and children, liability to the town, how the town dealt with gophers previously (two or three years ago they used only live traps) the timing of dealing with gophers (late in the season), the use of natural predators, success of similar gopher control programs in other municipalities and questions surrounding interference with construction of a new inclusive playground in the area.
Yargeau said the problem with gophers is a bigger concern this summer than in recent years.
"Absolutely. I would say there's more gophers,” said Yargeau. "It's much more noticeable just driving by the area. You can (easily) see them. We've received a lot of complaints from residents, specifically in the affected area," he added.
"It's very clear when you drive by that there's an issue."
He noted a possible reason for the increase in numbers.
"My best assumption is a lack of predators led to a healthy breeding season this year and now the (population) just exploded," he said.
Two motions were passed at council on Monday (July 22), including having administration create a communications strategy informing the public of the use of poison to control gopher populations in the Lincoln Park area and a motion to allocate funds for gopher control in the town's 2020 budget.
Yargeau noted that in addressing the issue this summer, there are hopes it will alleviate future problems.
"It's something we can deal with every year on a reduced basis after this year because it won't be as big a problem," Yargeau concluded.
