Build a better gopher trap

Man, in his continual struggle to make a living, stay healthy and put a little money in the bank, has a hard time of it. Those who decide to make a living as farmers sometimes have it tougher. They often have to put all their eggs into one basket — or, put another way, create a monoculture.

Take raising alfalfa hay for example.

In mid-summer the results of all the water, fertilizer, changing pipes at the crack-of-dawn and general TLC to raise a crop of alfalfa are beautifully obvious. However, trouble is brewing. Things farmers don’t like are attracted to alfalfa.

But free help is at hand…

When I’m out banding eagles and other raptors I really enjoy the sight and scent of beautiful fields of alfalfa all green and shimmering in the morning sun as the sprinklers shower down rainbows of life-giving water. But if you’re observant you can’t help but notice small piles of soil littering the green field of alfalfa. Those are gopher (or ground squirrel) mounds.

A 160-acre field of irrigated alfalfa is nothing short of heaven to a gopher. Here that poor guy had been living on bunchgrass roots and smelly old sagebrush stalks, when suddenly he bumps into the tasty roots of alfalfa.

“What’s this…?” he mutters, taking a small bite of sweet alfalfa root. Then grinning and drooling he shouts to his wife and kids, “Hey, guys, look what I found!” In a matter of weeks gophers encroach on an alfalfa field. Not only does the farmer’s yield go down, but also destructive mounds of volcanic soil are left to ruin the cutter-bars of alfalfa harvesting equipment.

That’s usually the last straw. Said farmer hastens to Big R, buys himself several pounds of poison and it’s good-bye gophers. The problem with that scenario is that it may also be good-bye non-target species as well.

So, why not let Mother Nature help out…?

That’s exactly what many smart farmers are doing throughout Oregon. Klamath growers are doing it and over in La Grande there’s a farmer who has surrounded himself with one of the finest gopher and mouse traps ever invented: Barn Owls.

Barn owls consume almost exclusively rodents. One family of barn owls, consisting of mom, dad, and five kids, will consume hundreds of pounds of rodents in one nest period!

And that’s exactly what got Mac McKibbin, who farms alfalfa out in McKenzie Canyon area with his lovely wife, Josephine, to call me and ask for some barn owls. The day he called, I happened to know that Gary Landers and his wife, Kellie, were looking for a place to release five barn owls they had been rehabilitating.

It only took me a couple of hours to build two barn owl nesting boxes, another hour or so to put them up on Mac’s place and plant the young owls in the boxes. Win, win!

Since that first release of last year, we have added another three owls to the seed crop. Now if the great horned owls that also occupy McKenzie Canyon don’t decide that barn owls are better fare than gophers and rabbits, Mac and his fellow farmers will have lots of free help removing gophers from their fields, and it is very environmentally acceptable.

If you would like a barn owl nesting box, e-mail me at [email protected] and I bet I can get an Eagle Scout to bring you one or two.