Gopher control underway in Brooks

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on March 12, 2026.

Crews with the City of Brooks parks department will be conducting gopher control throughout the community until Mar. 27.

Unlike Bill Murray’s character ‘Carl Spackler’ in the 1980 comedy film “Caddyshack,” crews won’t be attempting to drown gophers with large water hoses, but instead placing oat and pellet poison into gopher holes in select areas.

These toxic baits include chemicals like Chlorophacinone and Zinc Phoshide, and are effective for large nests of gophers.

Early spring is the ideal time to perform gopher control as well as in the fall, as they are actively building mounds during these times.

According to the government, pocket gophers are the most common problem in Alberta as they live in pastures and hayland and eat garden crops and kill woody plants and shrubs by feeding on the roots.

The Richardson’s ground squirrel is another common species in Alberta and is commonly referred to as a prairie gopher or yellow gopher, and are found in rangelands, pastures and croplands throughout the province.

Ground squirrels eat a wide charity of grasses and broadleaf plants and are known to compete with livestock for forage.

Particularly ground squirrels create damage to the edges of fields adjacent to native grasslands.