Jim Rosso:
>Does anybody know where I can
>start? I'll spend the time if I can just get started.

You might start with the TV station to get the basic facts on just
where this farmer is. You might then talk to USF&W and find out
what office was in charge of the project, and talk to them. You
might find out if there was a court case involved, and if so get
the court records, presuming they weren't sealed for some reason.

Here's an example of how the story might be different, though I
have no idea of the facts! Since everyone else seems interested
in discussing the case absent knowledge I might as well join in...

It is possible that the project was mitigation for the farmer's use
of land which was being used by the gophers. In other words, the
farmer may have wanted to farm a more productive portion of his holdings
which was harboring a population of this gopher. USF&W may have
agreed to a mitigation project - perhaps, in this case, experimentally
to see if artificial tunnels could work as a way to introduce
gophers into an area. It may have cost the farmer $6,000, but it
is also possible that he earned much more than that $6,000 by being
able to farm the more productive acreage earlier closed to him due
to pocket gopher occupancy.

This kind of mitigation work is typical of how USF&W deals with
threatened species on private land - depending on the species of
course. Thus far I've heard of no projects to build artificial
trees for spotted owls :) (though great greys take readily to
nest platforms...)

It may also be true that such artificial tunnel systems have worked
elsewhere, perhaps with closely related rodent species, and that
the "ridiculousness" of the attempt is only the silliness of a
reasonable extrapolation of a past effort going awry.

For instance, those PVC-pipe tunnels being built for burrowing
owls sure look silly, but not to the owls! Yes, burrowing owls
are different in that they don't build their own tunnels but
conceptually it isn't necessarily that different. My guess is
that the artificial gopher burrows were meant to shelter the
colony as it established itself and that it was expected that
the colony would expand by building tunnel systems of its own.

But, then again, like everyone else on this thread I'm JUST GUESSING.

BTW, if you do research and find out the that TV station's play
was only part of the story (hey, they only interviewed the farmer,
right - and the farmer clearly is not a neutral party in this affair,
correct?) call them up and make a stink. And write to the appropriate
local newspaper and BITCH TO HIGH HEAVENS ABOUT MEDIA BIAS!!!!




- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>