The City of Winnipeg’s plan to eradicate ground squirrels on athletic fields

The City of Winnipeg is moving ahead with a plan to eradicate ground squirrels from several athletic fields.

Football, soccer, and baseball fields in various neighbourhoods have been plagued by the prairie dogs for years, according to Community Services committee chair Vivian Santos.

“Now, what we’re seeing is the population has risen and has created quite extensive damages to our athletic fields, to the point where they can actually be unusable,” she said.

To get rid of the marmots, the committee has approved a plan to reintroduce a sulfur gas pesticide method, otherwise known as “Giant Destroyer.”

“It’s a very polarizing issue,” Santos noted. “We want to make sure that, as a safety for the people and the surrounding neighbourhoods, as well as how do we humanely put the ground squirrels to sleep.”

Giant Destroyer creates sulfur gas compounds when activated, killing the ground squirrels in their holes. As part of the process, the holes would then be filled with soil, burying the marmots inside.

The pesticide was previously used more than a decade ago, before management guidelines were put in place in 2015. The guidelines prioritized a carbon monoxide control method; however, that proved to be unsafe for staff using it.

While crews move ahead with Giant Destroyer, Santos said they will research other methods, including one that uses carbon dioxide.

She stressed the process would only be used at a handful of athletic fields. Those include:

• Charleswood Place
• Baryl Watts Park/Vince Leah Community Centre
• Fairgrove Bay Park
• Woodsworth Park
• Shaughnessy Park
• Weston Memorial Community Centre
• Theodore Niitzhotay Fontaine Park
• St. James Memorial Sports Park

Humane Society pushes for non-lethal methods

The Winnipeg Humane Society (WHS) is calling on the city to consider other, non-lethal options to remove the prairie dogs.

“So non-lethal methods could include things such as live-trapping, or in the case of ground squirrels, exclusion methods, which involve covering over burrows with materials like mesh, concrete, et cetera,” said WHS animal advocacy lawyer Krista Boryskavich.

Boryskavich also stressed the WHS’ stance on making sure the methods used cause as little distress to the animals as possible.

“We’re not going to completely eradicate them all. We can’t do that,” Santos said. “But we’re trying to mitigate the risk and lessen the amount of ground squirrels digging and burrowing and damaging the fields more than they really need to, just to ensure that our kids and our youth have a place to play in the summertime.”

Councillor Shawn Dobson said he supports the most humane method.

“Whichever is the best, the most humane, and safe to use is what we should be using,” he said.

Dobson, who himself had a run-in with a gopher hole while playing sports, also said he hopes the eradication process will help make fields safer for kids.

“I apparently broke a bone in my body, hurt my foot, and needless to say, I had six weeks in a cast,” Dobson recalled. “It’s something I couldn’t see because I’m looking up, and this was a city field.”

The Giant Destroyer would be used at the locations on a monthly basis from May to September or October, depending on the weather.