Olympia Wa gophers & trees (to buy, landlords, organic)

[fr&lr]

Is there an area in or near Olympia that you don't have to worry about gophers or other regulations when planting or cutting down thees or planting a garden?

[MJ5150]

No matter where you live, you should be concerned with the impact on the environment your activities have.

- your friendly local tee hugging granola head

[RotseCherut]

Originally Posted by fr&lr

Is there an area in or near Olympia that you don't have to worry about gophers or other regulations when planting or cutting down thees or planting a garden?

Bastards are eating up my yard as we speak.. You can take an air rifle or BB gun and shoot it down the hole.. That usually will kill them.. Or , you can buy those poison pellets, although it is not as eco-friendly as blasting them. I've heard of people using some organic compounds distributed over the yard that the gophers eat and then makes them sick and not want to come back. Don't know the details of that stuff, but remember one of my landlords in the past used it to rid another gopher problem I had.

[Diana Holbrook]

Yes... there are areas near Olympia where you don't have to worry about gophers (Mazama Pocket Gophers in particular) and trees (White Oaks in particular) But there are lots of places where, unfortunately, we do have to worry about them. Worrying about them is a big part of my life! So HI!

The areas are mapped... So you can check properties against the map. (Note - City jurisdictions not shown on the map... so inside the city limits you may have gopher review processes... It depends.)

http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/permitt...-soils-map.pdf

If you notice, the pocket gopher apparently can't cross the Black River to the west... so you can look out in those areas of Thurston County without having gopher review issues. You can avoid the Oak trees of you stay out of the Scatter Creek and Black River flood plains... that's where most of them are.

Me... I live on Scatter Creek, and we have both on our property. It's not the END of the world, but it is a pain in the rear.
With the help of new commissioners we fought hard to get last election, the process is getting easier.

It's a lot easier to buy an established place than it is to get a NEW permit in gopher areas.

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by RotseCherut

Bastards are eating up my yard as we speak.. You can take an air rifle or BB gun and shoot it down the hole.. That usually will kill them.. Or , you can buy those poison pellets, although it is not as eco-friendly as blasting them. I've heard of people using some organic compounds distributed over the yard that the gophers eat and then makes them sick and not want to come back. Don't know the details of that stuff, but remember one of my landlords in the past used it to rid another gopher problem I had.

He's not really asking about how to get rid of them. In Thurston County, a rare variety of gopher is protected and is an impediment to building permits if you have them.

[Thom52]

Protected Gophers???? What is the world coming to?

That is like putting a species of Rats on the endangered list. Or maybe protecting fruit flies.

[Diana Holbrook]

Don't give them any ideas, Thom...

The prior county commissioners out here truly believed people shouldn't live in the country, and did their best to keep people from being able to do so. They created an atmosphere where they could effectively limit or even effectively stop all new development in the South County Prairie area for some time.... until we voted them out.

However, the damage is done and is sometimes hard to undo... now the Feds, and the endangered species act, is involved... and they're harder to get rid of than bad commissioners. When I say "they're", I mean the feds, not the gophers.

The gophers... well, they're not exactly easy to get rid of either. In fact, if you go visit Mt. St. Helens, you'll learn that the very first animal to come back after the volcano blew, was the Mazama Pocket Gopher. They survived the blast just fine. They're actually pretty resilient little creatures.

Their other main habitat is in the blast zone at JBLM. They like the loosened soils, maybe.

[Diana Holbrook]

Read more background here: https://www.google.com/search?q=thur...+pocket+gopher

[MarciaMarshaMarcia]

Are there gophers here? We have a lot of moles, that’s another issue!

[wolfdog]

Google the video about using JuicyFruit gum. It's worked for me for two years now. But I had moles, not gophers, if that matters. Wacko alert: It kills them.