Proposed poison project perceived as pernicious

The U.S. Forest Service will begin trapping and poisoning gophers this month and continue for as long as weather conditions allow, the Sisters Ranger District announced on October 6.

However, the project has provoked a local naturalist into vociferous opposition.

The project will place traps or poison oats underground in order to reduce the number of gophers within about 2,000 acres of tree plantations located south of Sisters, in the Metolius Basin and on Green Ridge, according to project manager Dave Moyer. In these areas high population levels of gophers feeding on young trees threaten forest regeneration efforts.

"Because both the trapping and baiting are underground, we feel the risk to people and animals is small,'' said Moyer, "but it's best if people who use the woods keep a watch out for these sites and avoid them."

Poison bait is the most cost- effective method for gopher control, according to the Forest Service, but the project will use traps near housing subdivisions and other sensitive sites such as spotted owl habitat in the Metolius Basin in order to minimize risks.

Baiting will be the primary gopher control measure on Green Ridge, Moyer said.

Naturalist and free-lance writer Jim Anderson questions the project both "philosophically and scientifically." He points out that tree regeneration efforts have seen a high failure rate in other plantations, such as the site of the Delicious Fire, for reasons "that had nothing to do with gophers."

Anderson, who has been involved with central Oregon ecology issues for a couple of decades, said the Forest Service and other agencies have "used poison in the past and found it unsuccessful.

"The poisoning of porcupines was discontinued because it was ineffective and dangerous to other wildlife. Coyote poisoning was discontinued as ineffective and dangerous to other wildlife," Anderson said.

The danger to other wildlife is difficult to monitor, Anderson says, which is one reason he especially opposes poisoning.

"If there are that many gophers out there, then they have attracted predators to the food source. That is what nature does. Everybody jumps on the bandwagon -- northern goshawks, spotted owls, red tail hawks, saw-whet and screech owls, pine martens, weasels, even badgers," said Anderson.

A marten, Anderson worries, could travel a half-mile before the poison would take effect. Birds would represent even more of a problem.

"There is no way they can go out and monitor without somebody, a bunch of somebodies, going out and doing a lot of work. But without that, how do you know what effect you have had?" Anderson asks.

Moyer acknowledges that there "is a chance of secondary poisoning, but in all the years we have done this I have never found another animal besides a few chipmunks and ground squirrels" that have been poisoned.

Forest Service studies show a low mortality among owls and other raptors, he said.

Most of the project monitoring will focus on project effectiveness, Moyer said. Within 48 hours after poison has been put out, personnel will visit the units, check bait and look for evidence the gophers have either succumbed or are still alive.

In larger units the persons monitoring will work grids, Moyer said, that could be more than 200 feet apart. If they find dead gophers above ground, the animals will be brought in and probably burned, which also destroys the strychnine.

Moyer said that gophers will not always die immediately. Pocket gophers can store the strychnine-laced grain and not succumb until they have eaten it perhaps months later.

If the Forest Service finds a dead marten, hawk or owl in one of the units, Moyer said the Forest Service might assume the animal had eaten a poisoned gopher. If a hundred predators had died, Moyer said "we would realize that something is not working right."

This has not happened in the 20 years he has been involved with gopher control programs, Moyer said, and he would probably suspect sabotage. Poison bait is readily available to the public, he said.

Anderson does not feel the monitoring of possible negative impacts of poison are adequate, and said that while trapping is much less efficient and more costly than poison, it can be very effective. Human presence in tending the traps tends to scare off predators and traps are much more selective in not killing non-target species, he said.

During baiting operations, which are planned to begin at the end of this week, red-and-white caution signs will be posted at each unit. Other indications of baiting include short pieces of paper tape or newspaper placed on the ground and partially covered with soil. Traps are flagged as well.

Moyer advises forest users to avoid digging in or disturbing these marked areas. Pet owners should keep dogs and cats from digging in the baited areas as well, according to the Forest Service.

Moyer noted that the project does not aim to eliminate all gophers from the forest.

"Every year we expect to lose a certain number of trees to gophers," said Moyer, "but when gophers reach high population levels, they can really set back a site. That means we need to replant, which gets costly."