Gophers have long been marked animals in St. Francis, but the critters may be about to get a reprieve.
The city has been looking at eliminating a $1.50 gopher bounty, money it offers because of the damage the animals do to fields and roads.
Recently, the payouts have gone way over the $700 the city budgets for them each year. In 2010, St. Francis paid out $1,477, up from $440 and $366 in 2008 and 2009, said City Clerk Barb Held said.
Already this year, one man brought in 694 pairs of gopher feet -- the evidence required -- for a reward of $1,041. That's the most Held has seen at once. Previously, she said, the city has paid for as many as 30 to 40 animals at once, but even that is rare.
These days, with fewer farms, fewer cities and counties offer the bounty, which Held said may have caused the spike in St. Francis.
Only city residents can get the bounties, but that doesn't mean hunters can't get gophers from elsewhere and bring them in.
The City Council unanimously approved an ordinance to repeal the payouts on a first reading Feb. 7 and was scheduled to have a second reading Tuesday night. Held said the city hadn't heard any opposition, and she expects the bounty to be repealed by late March.
Gopher bounties are common in rural areas of Minnesota, said Gene Dufault of the Minnesota Association of Townships. He pointed to the animals' impact on farms and roads and also said that, in the past, rural electric companies would even subsidize the bounties to prevent gophers from chewing their underground wires.
As for St. Francis' bounty, "They can abolish it if they like, but I think they're going to find that if they do that these critters [will] take over," Dufault said.
Minnesota law says any city can offer a bounty for gophers or squirrels. Other states' bounty laws vary, from California, where offering any bounty is illegal, to Louisiana, where beavers can be worth $5.
Katherine Lymn is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune.
