POCATELLO — Yellow-bellied marmots are causing a ruckus once again in the Gate City after residents report invasive holes and damage to grave sites at the Mountain View Cemetery.

Over the last few weeks, the destructive nature of the cemetery marmots has personally affected local residents including Jessica Johnson, of Pocatello. She feels as if the city’s parks department isn’t doing nearly enough to protect what should be hallowed ground.

Johnson recently had a family member who was laid to rest at the cemetery and she and her family have had to take extra protective measures around her father’s grave against the marmots. Her mother often visits the grave site to ensure that more tunneling or damage hasn’t taken place and it’s begun to upset and unsettle her, causing a lack of sleep.

“I feel like it’s their job to keep it a protected, sacred, peaceful place for people to be laid to rest and it’s not any of those things,” Johnson said about the current state of the cemetery. “It’s not peaceful, it’s not protected and it’s the opposite of that. You go there and it’s very unsettling and it’s distracting. It’s not a place where you feel like you can even safely take your family to visit. A big issue is the health risk. Marmots and their feces carry diseases and having them on the property is just an increasing health risk to the people who visit there.”

Pocatello Parks and Recreation Director Anne Butler and the Parks Department have been busy over the course of the last few weeks readying the Mountain View Cemetery for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. According to Butler, last year had a record peak in the marmot population in the surrounding area which prompted the city to reach out the United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services to help handle the situation.

The Idaho State Journal reported on a significant marmot infestation in early June last year, where the critters were causing pronounced damage to grave sites by burrowing under headstones and tunneling as deep as the burial vaults that house the caskets.

”Last May in 2024, I could count 70 to 80 marmots as I drove the back road at Mountain View,” Butler said. “Today I saw three. A couple weeks ago, it was about 15. We have been actively treating that area to keep them at bay.”

Butler continued, “I don’t think it’s realistic to think that we’ll ever be able to drive them out entirely, but we do need to find a good balance. If you drive out there and you only see a handful, I think we’ve probably found that balance, but we have been doing our best to clean up behind them.”

The city has tried a variety of strategies to combat the mountains of marmots that seem intent on damaging the public cemetery space, including trapping and relocating and even poison. Butler said that the parks department often relies on the advice of Wildlife Services on the best ways to address the marmot problem.

“When we see a hole, we fill it and then when we see an animal that comes back to that hole and digs it back out again, we treat that area a couple times before we fill it again,” Butler said. “Just in the last few weeks we have been extensively filling holes. I’m sure there’s still a handful out there, but we’ve got them mostly filled and we will continue to work to see those areas (built) back or by laying sod there.”

Despite the work the city has done to prepare the cemetery for Memorial Day weekend, which has included cleaning, landscaping and steps taken to combat the marmots from damaging property, a few of the North American ground squirrels are still wreaking havoc.

Johnson believes the amount of damage the marmots have caused and are continuing to cause will end up costing the city more money in the long run the longer it allows the problem to continue.

“You literally have to watch where you step, because their droppings are everywhere,” Johnson said. “It’s around the headstones and it’s all over on the grass. It’s just disgusting. I feel like they could have got ahead of the game this year because they knew about it last year before it got out of hand. But I feel like they’ve let it almost get out of hand again this year.”

One of the city’s major difficulties in completely addressing the situation lies in the marmots’ point of entry to the cemetery — the rocky expanse and wild nature along the property line near Red Hill Trail.

The parks department can only take action on areas of the property that it owns. Butler has reached out to the private property managers who own buildings on South Seventh Avenue near the back of the cemetery, but she said they seem unwilling to collectively address the large marmot population in the area.

Other issues include the marmots’ lack of natural predators in the area. Additionally, the marmots’ habitat is localized around the Red Hill area and near places like Ross Park. They utilize the rocky outcroppings or alcoves to build their burrows.

Wild dandelions, a primary food source for marmots, also seem to drive them into the cemetery grounds.

Johnson says the city could have done a better job of being proactive instead of reactive once the marmots started causing problems weeks ago by spraying or trimming the weeds in advance.

While the population of marmots at the Mountain View Cemetery seems to have been drastically reduced compared to last year, the issue is still reoccurring. The damage has a profound impact on families like the Johnsons, who worry about the sanctity of family members and loved ones who have had their places of rest disturbed.

“I know my staff is very conscientious of the activities that go on at the cemetery and that we would never want to make anyone feel like we disrespected their family,” Butler said. “If patrons see a marmot hole out at the cemetery, and it’s not flagged, if they were to call our cemetery office and even just leave a message with that location, then we can actively go out and (address) that.”

She added, “There are several acres of property out there, and so we as a staff, when we were out there this week working, we’re trying to mark spots. But that doesn’t mean that we didn’t miss one or two. If they see something that looks different, if they would let us know so that we can address it, that’s the key. We definitely want to fix those issues.”