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Toronto Sun
17-07-2025
- Toronto Sun
Ground squirrels are taking over a North Dakota city and officials are not amused
Stampede bartender vows 'never' to do it again, citing abusive crowds and marathon shifts Nude photo leak meant to be 'distraction' from political goals, McGregor says MANDEL: Mentally ill man with history of stabbing strangers convicted of murder Ground squirrels are taking over a North Dakota city and officials are not amused Photo by Jack Dura / AP Article content MINOT, N.D. (AP) — The Richardson's ground squirrel weighs less than a pound, is about a foot long and is native to the northern Plains. Advertisement 2 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account or Sign in without password View more offers Article content The little creature also is a ferocious tunneler, and it's exasperating the people of Minot, North Dakota, where it's burrowing everywhere from vacant lots to the middle of town, and growing more plentiful over the past two decades. Article content tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Ground squirrels are taking over a North Dakota city and officials are not amused Back to video tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Play Video Article content Now North Dakota's fourth-largest city is fighting back, but even the pest control guy leading the charge acknowledges that it will be difficult to turn the tide against the rodent. An uphill battle Joshua Herman said fighting the squirrels is akin to 'one guy standing against a massive storm.' 'If I'm trapping but my neighbour isn't, well then, we're really not going to get anywhere with it, long-term,' Herman said. Ground squirrels have been an issue in Minot, a city of nearly 50,000 people, for at least 20 years, but the problem has dramatically worsened in the last few years, said Minot Street Department Superintendent Kevin Braaten. Your Midday Sun Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. There was an error, please provide a valid email address. Sign Up By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Thanks for signing up! A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Your Midday Sun will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Article content Advertisement 3 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content It's unclear how many of the squirrels live in Minot but it likely nears or even exceeds the city's population. 'Gosh, there's got to be tens of thousands of them in the area,' Herman said. Officials in the city, a green spot along the winding Souris River surrounded by farmland and grassy prairie, know they can't get rid of the squirrels, but hope to simply get the rodent numbers down. 'I don't see the population ever going to zero,' Braaten said. 'I mean, it's almost impossible by the numbers that we have.' Put another way, Minot won't be able to rid itself of the squirrels because the animals have lived on the prairie for centuries. Outside of town, predators like coyotes, badgers, owls and even snakes love to dine on the squirrels. But in residential neighborhoods and even downtown, where few of their predators live, the rodents can roam pretty freely. Advertisement 4 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Greg Gullickson, an outreach biologist with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, adds that the squirrels now have fewer grassland areas available to them and like the mowed spots they find in town. No land is safe Female squirrels typically give birth to litters of about six babies a year, so it's easy to see how their numbers can quickly soar. Herman said he kills 3,500 to 5,000 of them a year, primarily by putting snares and carbon monoxide into the holes, and using an air rifle. 'I've had calls downtown, calls in the mall, along the highways, here at the airport — really every part of the city I've done trapping for ground squirrels here in Minot,' Herman said as he checked his traps along an apartment building and shovelled dirt over holes. Advertisement 5 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Herman says they damage driveways, sidewalks and lawns; create tripping hazards with their holes and can harbor disease from fleas. Along an apartment building, the squirrels had dug under a concrete slab and against the foundation. Nearby in a vacant lot, the rodents popped in and out of holes. Ground squirrels near Pashone Grandson's ground-level apartment dig holes near her door and eat her plants. One squirrel even got around her baby gate at the door and into her daughter's clothes in her bedroom. 'It was a little scary. You don't know what disease they carry. They're dirty. I have a young daughter … I didn't know if it was going to bite her,' Grandson said. North of town, Minot Air Force Base, which houses bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, has fought the ground squirrels for years. Earlier this month, the base said it had trapped more than 800 'dak-rats,' a base name for the rodents. Advertisement 6 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Base officials declined to comment on the squirrels. Jared Edwards, facilities director for Minot Public Schools, which has three schools on the base, said residential areas of the base and runways are overrun by ground squirrels. He called it 'a continuous battle for them for the last 75 years since the base has been there.' 'I'm not going to exaggerate: They're by the millions out there,' Edwards said. In town, three school properties have large populations of ground squirrels, he said. Last year, the school system began using snares, and for years before that had used poison. 'It's something you have to keep up with. It is Mother Nature,' Edwards said, adding that they've probably been in the area since homesteaders came through. A cute nuisance Still, not everyone sees the squirrels as a pest. Some find the critters cute and fuzzy. Herman said people have sabotaged, stolen or thrown out his traps. They occasionally confront him when he shoots at ground squirrels with an air rifle, scolding him for hurting the wildlife, he said. 'They get that cute association, and they are, you know, adorable, but they're a vermin and a pest and dangerous when they are allowed to proliferate,' Herman said. Article content Share this article in your social network Read Next
Boston Globe
01-07-2025
- Boston Globe
Six underrated national parks worth visiting
Write to us at . To subscribe, . TODAY'S STARTING POINT With Independence Day this week kicking off the summer vacation season, travelers and the travel industry are asking, The US set a record last year, with 332 million visits to the 433 national parks, monuments, historic sites, memorials, seashores, and more that 'Our nation's national parks are barreling towards a crisis,' an advocacy nonprofit, Advertisement ( A side note: The administration posted signs at the parks asking visitors to report any information they saw that was 'negative about any past or living American,' part of Trump's order that federal institutions be scrubbed of references to historic racism and sexism. The Interior Department says the parks will be ready, although the Coalition warns that visitors may see more trash, fewer educational programs, less access to park features, and potentially fewer rangers to help keep them safe. Advertisement Long lines, traffic, and packed parking lots are already so common that some of the most popular parks, such as Yosemite in California (4.1 million visits in 2024) and Zion in Utah (4.9 million) are However, there is an alternative to elbowing through crowds at the most popular parks: Visit the obscure ones. Some parks may lack the obvious comeliness and marketing firepower of the Grand Canyon (4.9 million visits) or Yellowstone (4.7 million), but they are still among America's greatest places. My wife and I have visited 45 of the 63 national parks, the crown jewels of the Park Service's holdings. That experience allows me to recommend some off-the-beaten-path destinations. Here is my entirely subjective list of the four most underrated national parks with annual visits of fewer than 1 million, plus two nearby lesser-known parks: Lassen Volcanic National Park, California (358,000 visits in 2024) The park's namesake, Lassen Peak, is a 10,457-foot volcano that erupted in 1915. Lassen NP has some Yellowstone-style geothermal features, while receiving fewer than 10 percent of the more famous park's annual visits. A trip to Lassen pairs nicely with a side excursion to California wine country. A wild horse near Peaceful Valley Ranch in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Jack Dura/Associated Press Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota (733,000 visits) North Dakota, Advertisement Channel Islands National Park, California (263,000 visits) This park consists of a handful of islands off the coast of Ventura, a ferry ride from the mainland. We ferried to Santa Cruz Island and backpacked across it over two mellow days. Along the way we saw dozens of island fox, an adorable, kitten-sized species that seems too tiny to be real. Views from the island are unspoiled and dramatic, the way the whole coast might have looked before the invention of the condo. Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico (460,000 visits) Maybe my favorite underrated park in the system — so far. It's scraggly on the surface, but 750 feet or so underground, the park's cave system is otherworldly. Electric lights delicately illuminate natural features of the caves, while maintaining a dark environment with just enough brightness to walk through without mangling yourself. People speak in reverent whispers down there, like they are visiting a great cathedral during services. A little advance planning is necessary; the park uses a timed-entry reservation system, though when I checked recently, no days within the next month were entirely sold out. Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas (226,000 visits) It's easy to combine Carlsbad Caverns on a trip with two other lesser-known national parks in the neighborhood. One is Guadalupe Mountains, a hiker's park with almost no roads and home to Texas' highest mountain — 8,751-foot Guadalupe Peak. Advertisement A photographer at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. David Zalubowski/Associated Press White Sands National Park, New Mexico (702,000 visits) The other is a former national monument that leveled up to national park in 2019. White Sands is a massive set of rolling gypsum dunes, startlingly white and bright and weird. If you do this epic Southwest road trip, might as well stop in the Am I missing an underrated national park? . 🧩 4 Across: 88° POINTS OF INTEREST By Ian Prasad Philbrick 'A heavy burden on taxpayers': Springfield, Massachusetts's third largest city, has paid more than $11 million State budget: Massachusetts lawmakers sent their spending plan for the next fiscal year to Governor Maura Healey's desk — the first time in nearly a decade Market Basket: Two executives loyal to the grocery company's ousted CEO visited two stores to thank retiring employees. Advertisement Police sergeant: A Boston Police Department sergeant LA lawsuit: The Trump administration sued Los Angeles, alleging that its 'sanctuary' policies violate the Constitution by thwarting immigration enforcement. ( Kilmar Abrego Garcia: The Salvadoran immigrant who was mistakenly deported and then returned to the US will remain in federal custody until at least mid-July, a judge ruled. Abrego Garcia's lawyers asked to delay his release to avoid giving the Trump administration a chance to deport him. ( Sanctions relief: Trump lifted US sanctions on Syria to help its new government, which overthrew Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship last year. ( Idaho shooting: The authorities named a 20-year-old male suspect in the fatal shooting of two firefighters near Coeur d'Alene, saying he set a fire to lure first responders before killing himself. ( Diddy trial: Jury deliberations appear to be off to a rocky start. In a note, jurors told the judge that one juror 'does not follow' the judge's instructions. Deliberations are set to continue today. ( Campaign finance: The Supreme Court agreed to hear a Republican challenge to restrictions on how much political parties can spend in coordination with federal candidates. ( BESIDE THE POINT 💍 The Big Day: His medical residency left little time for dating. So 📷 As he sees it: On Broadway in Chelsea, Advertisement ✍️ ;( The semicolon has long had its detractors. Now the punctuation mark seems to be going extinct. ( 📺 Speaking of overlooked: There are a kajillion TV shows to choose from. Here are 15 good ones that 🔭 Out there: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope appears to have discovered a new exoplanet, dubbed TWA 7 b, which orbits a star outside our solar system. ( 😎 Fun in the sun: The Globe asked readers to name their favorite family-friendly beaches. 😋 🤢 Mixed reviews: The durian, a Southeast Asian fruit, is alternately prized ('it elevates your spirit') and reviled (like 'a dead body out in the sun') for its smell and taste. One writer visited the world's mecca for the controversial fruit. ( Thanks for reading Starting Point. This newsletter was edited by ❓ Have a question for the team? Email us at ✍🏼 If someone sent you this newsletter, you can 📬 Delivered Monday through Friday. Mark Arsenault can be reached at
