Gopher Bounty

 There’s nothing goofy about gophers…they represent a real threat and must be taken seriously. Bingham County is doing just that. Traditional thoughts on gophers place them on farms digging burrows and having entrance and exit mounds that pop up all over fields. The fact that they eat crop roots and thus destroy plants, as in reducing grain production by as much as 15-20%, is only a part of the problem. The dirt from gopher mounds also make its way into farm machinery and costs thousands and thousands of dollars between down time and repair bills.

 Now news that gophers are devastating to canal systems. The gophers burrow into canal banks and cause water leaks that can eventually cause banks to collapse. These burrowing rodents are responsible for 90 percent of all damage caused to canals and ditches in Bingham County. Commissioner Ladd Carter is spearheading the effort to reduce the numbers of gophers by putting a $1 bounty on them. He says trapping is the way to get the bounty and he’s found just the guy to teach you how to trap. “To pay a bounty there’s no other way to recover them other than to trap ‘em and we have a professional who’s trapped ‘em for several years and he’s gonna give us a demonstration and teach people how to use the different traps. This guy is the Daniel Boone of gophers? Yup.”

 I’d love to see that gopher hat and tail.